Gokusen 3 Remake
by SheebaDiva
Summary: Gokusen 3, but with one twist: Saitou, Heza. Not only does this girl go to Akadou and reside in Class 3-D, she is the childhood friend of Kazama, Ren. How will Class 3-D get through their senior year when a romance starts between her and the last person they expected: Ogata, Yamato? T rated for language. Hope you like and review.
1. Description

Description

Name: Saitou, Heza  
Age: 18  
Height: 5'6  
Eyes: Brown  
Hair: Brown with natural light brown highlights (shoulder length)  
Father: Japanese, Deceased  
Mother: American, Deceased  
Childhood Friend/Brother: Kazuma, Ren  
School: Akadou  
Class: 3-D  
Uniform: Black jacket with school crest on the collar (wears it unbuttoned), black v-neck tank-top with gold swirl designs, black skirt (stops at mid-thigh), black tennis shoes (not school issued)  
Jewelry: Skull and crossbones necklace (silver), black leather wristband (both wrist), skull stud earrings (silver/ two in the left ear, one in the right ear)  
Likes: Beings with her friends (Ren, Kura, Ichi), Sleeping, Watching clouds, Playing pool and darts  
Dislikes: Bullies, Preppy girls, Make-up, Things in her hair like hairpins  
Weakness: Baby animals, pocky, Being in the dark  
Cellphone: Looks like Yamato's but black with a white skull sticker on the front


	2. Episode One

Episode One

"Ohayou," I skipped up to my friends: Ren, Kura, and Ichi, "ready to go. We're already late."

They nodded. We started walking to school.

"Do you think that teacher is going to be there again today," I asked Ren as we walked through the front gate.

Yesterday was our first day of our senior year and the school didn't waste any time pissing us off. They sent the ugliest teacher to our classroom to be our home room teacher. What really pissed me off was that he thought he could 'control' us with some pretty words.

"No way," Kura exclaimed, "we totally scared him off, right?"

"Right," Ichi agreed, "I hope we get a new teacher with a body like Nurse Sakura-san."

Ren and Kura nodded in agreement. I rolled my eyes.

"Is that the only thing you boys think about," I huffed.

"Like you said Heza, we're boys and boys like b..."

"Okay I get it," I held my hands up cutting off Ren, "you're a bunch of perverts. I get it."

"OI!"

They began to protest, but I started running to our class laughing. They chased me until we got to the door. Ren walked right in swinging his bag. The boys in the class began to make a path for us as we walked to our desks in the back. We got this special treatment only because of Ren. In both our freshmen and sophomore year, he was the head of our class.

We sat down. The boys immediately began to glare across the room. I turned in my seat to see Ogata, Yamato and his gang, Honjo, Kengo and Kamiya, Shunsuke, glaring back. Apparently, Ogata was the head of his respected classes during the last two years like Ren. Sooner or later, they were going to fight to see who would be the head of Akadou, and I'm betting on sooner than later.

"Are you four late?"

I looked up to see a woman in a red jersey standing at our desks. She looked just plain dorky. She wore thin, round glasses and had her hair in low pigtails. Ren glanced at her then turned to the boy behind her.

"Akatsuki-kun," the boy turned and saluted Ren, "who's this?"

"The new homeroom teacher," he stated.

'At least it's not the ugly guy again,' I thought as she introduced herself.

"My name is Yamaguchi, Kumiko. Nickname: Yankumi," she smiled, "nice to meet you."

The boys turned and began to talk about the other female teachers' bodies ignoring the dorky one in front of us. Kura took out his cards and was about to deal them when she took them stating that cards were for break. Kura stood and went to punch her, but she ducked in time sending him flying over her. She stood back up holding a coin.

"I found a 100 yen," she said like nothing happened.

Kura stood back up and went to grab her, but she grabbed his hand. He tried to break free, but her grip was strong. She finally laid his hand in her's. She placed the yen in his hand before going back to the front. Being the short-tempered person that he was, Kura kicked over a deck only to hurt himself.

"My achilles," he moaned.

"How lame," a voice laughed.

"Who said that," Kura yelled as Ichi jumped up.

Honjo did a tiny wave. Kura and Ichi yelled at him causing him and Kamiya to stand. The class started cheering and chanting as the four got in each other's faces. I looked at Ren to tell him to stop them, but he was too busy glaring at Ogata, who was glaring right back. I groaned hitting my head on my desk. This was going to be a long year.

* * *

After Yamaguchi left, we decided to skip. We went to the arcade to play some pool. Kura and Ren were the first to play. We laughed when Kura missed his target sending the white ball in the hole.

"Hey Ren, are you really planning on going one on one with Yamato," Ichi asked.

Ren smiled, "yeah. I definitely won't lose to him."

I leaned again one of the other pool tables, "does being head of the school really mean that much to you?"

The three raised their eyebrows at me.

I continued, "I mean can't we all just get along? This is our senior year."

"Are you feeling okay, Heza," Ren asked leaning beside me.

Kura placed his hand on my forehead, "she's not running a fever."

I shoved his hand away, "whatever. I'm going home."

I got off the pool table and grabbed my bag. I started walking away when Ren pulled my arm stopping me.

"Are you okay," he asked.

I looked at him, "I'm fine. I just want to go home right now."

He let go of my arm, "well I'll walk you."

"No, that's okay, " I started walking away again then turned and waved to them, "ja né."

They waved back, "ja né, Heza."

I walked out of the aracde and went home. I was almost to my apartment when I heard a young voice cry out for help. Sighing I followed the voice until I reached an abandoned alley. I glanced around the corner to see a little girl being thrown to the ground by an older man. I balled my fist as he kicked her in the stomach. I got out my cellphone and dialed the police. When I was done telling them the situation and the directions to the alley's location, I walked up to the man. He had his back to me so I kick him in the ass sending him flying over the girl like Kura flew over Yamaguchi earlier today. The man groaned. He stood and looked at me.

"You bitch," he snarled.

He raised his fist to punch me, but a hand shot out and grabbed it. My eyes widened at the person.

"Who do you think you are hitting on girls? Are you gay," he growled.

"Ogata," I whispered.

He looked at me, "get her and get out of here."

"But..."

"GO!"

Without hesitation, I picked up the girl and ran out of the alley. I heard sirens and ran in their direction. The cop car stopped in front of me. The cop got out. He looked at the girl in my arms.

"What happened?"

I explain to him what happened before handing him the girl and running back to the alley. When I got there, Ogata was gone, and the man was laying on the ground beaten. I ran to the other end of the alley which lead to the Shirokin Tunnel. I looked around to see if I could spot Ogata, but he was long gone. I sighed and walked on home.

* * *

"Are you alright, Heza," Ichi asked as we waited for Ren with Kura.

I nodded my head, "I'm fine. Why?"

He shrugged, "you just seem out of it. Did something happen yesterday?"

"I bet she met up with some guy," Kura poked my nose playfully, "né?"

I felt my face turn red, "no!"

They started to laugh when Ren decided to join us. He looked pissed.

"What's going on," he pointed to me, "why is Heza blushing?"

Ichi and Kura started laughing harder until they saw the stern look on Ren's face, "it's nothing."

"Whatever. Let's go."

We got to the classroom and Ren walked right up to Ogata.

"Let's sort out once and for all who heads Akadou," Ren stated.

Ogata let out a laugh as he stood, "you want a one on one with me?"

Ren smirked, "yeah."

Ogata's face went stern and serious, "sounds good to me. Let's do it."

Ren's face mirrored Ogata's, "after school, come to Shirokin park."

As the two glared at each other, Ichi and Honjo started glaring at each other followed by Kura and Kamiya. I rolled my eyes at them as the door slid open. Yamaguchi walked inside.

"Ohayou. Everyone take your seats."

The six boys ignored her and kept glaring at each other. She spoke louder thinking they didn't hear her. She stepped towards us as the door slid open again and in walked Sawatari and Yajima.

"Kazama come with us," Sawatari ordered.

Ren turned his glared to Sawatari, "huh?"

Yamaguchi stepped forward, "what's going on?"

"The police want to question Kazama about the serial muggings," Yajima explained.

Ren rolled his eyes before following them out of the classroom with Yamaguchi. I sighed leaning against a desk. It became silent between our gang and Ogata's as the rest of the class continued with their conversations. After a few minutes, I broke the silence.

"Why do they always accuse us first," I crossed my arms, "Ren didn't do anything."

Ogata huffed, "don't be so sure."

I turned to him, "nani?"

Before he could reply, the door slammed open and Ren stormed in with Yamaguchi right on his tail.

"Kazama don't leave," she said trying to calm him down, "I'll talk to the Director. Don't leave."

"I don't believe in what a teacher says," Ren growled before grabbing his bag and walking out.

Yamaguchi was about to go after him, but Ichi stopped her.

"Hey! Why don't you leave him alone," she turned to him, "what can a teacher do?"

She looked around the room, "why? Why can you all still be smiling," the class went silent and she continued, "a comrade who didn't do anything wrong was just suspended!"

"Comrade," Ogata smirked, "we happen to be in the same class. That's all."

The class nodded in agreement.

"Even so, don't you feel anything," she argued, "don't you think anything of it?"

"Not really," Kamiya replied.

"It happens a lot," Honjo stated.

The class laughed and nodded their heads.

Yamaguchi pointed to the door where Ren exited, "that guy was falsely accused and then tossed out! Don't you think it's wrong?!"

"Man she's fired up," one of guys said making the class laugh.

Despite the class' laughter, she tried to make her point, "why not rebel at a time like this!"

"Quit with the sermon already," Kura shouted.

Ichi slammed his hands down, "whatever we say won't change anything."

"It's not like you damn teachers ever listen to what we say anyway," Kura stated.

Yamaguchi walked up to him, "is that why you're telling me to drop it?"

"Oh, by the way," we turned our attention to Ogata as he stood, "he was near the Shirokin Tunnel at the time of the incident. I saw him with my own eyes."

'So that's what he meant before,' I thought, 'and the alley did lead to the tunnel, but that means...'

"It can't be," I said.

"You calling me a liar," he glared.

I avoided his eyes.

"Really," Yamaguchi spoke up.

"Yeah," he snapped before grabbing his bag and leaving.

I felt tears coming to my eyes. Ren was going to get expelled and leave me. He was going to make me graduate on my own and after we promised to graduate together.

_Flashback_

_We stood at the edge of Sakura River. I was trying to skip rocks but failing miserably. Ren laughed every time my rock made a big splash._

_"Don't laugh," I yelled at him, "it's not funny!"_

_He laughed louder, "yes it is."_

_I glared at him. I walked behind him and pushed him in the river. Sensing what I was going to do, he turned and pulled me in with him. I let out a squeal. He splashed me causing a splash war to start. Of course, Ren won. We laid in the grass catching our breath._

_"Hey Ren."_

_"Nani?"_

_"Promise me that we'll graduate together."_

_"What are you talking about," he sat up, "of course we're going to graduate together."_

_"No I mean you can't get yourself expelled," I sat up and looked him in the eyes, "promise me."_

_He nodded, "alright, I promise."_

_I stuck out my pinkie. He wrapped his pinkie around mine._

_"I promise, Heza. We will graduate together."_

_End of Flashback_

Thinking back to that day, I knew it wasn't true. Ren never broke a pinkie promise. Never. Right then and there I made a decision, I was going to prove Ren was innocent. What I didn't know was someone else also made that vow.

* * *

The next day was kind of weird. I walked in the classroom to see everyone crowded at the front watching Yamaguchi, who was handing out a piece of paper to them. I made my way to Ichi and Kura.

"What's going on," I whispered.

Ichi gave me the paper. It read, 'Looking for a witness.' There was a drawn picture of a man in a hoodie and beside that was two other pictures of a skull necklace and a tribal tattoo.

"I'd like everyone to help prove Kazama's innocence," I looked up at Yamaguchi.

Honjo laughed, "This...isn't he lying?"

"He's not lying," she said.

"Why do you believe that," Kamiya raised his voice.

"I can tell from looking at his eyes," she said plainly.

Kamiya stepped forward and got in her face, "I smell an idiot."

The class laughed as he made his way back to his spot.

"Lend me your hand. Please," she bowed.

Everyone, except me, Ichi, Kura and surprisingly Ogata, threw the paper up in the air and left. I stood there stunned. She, a teacher, willingly bowed for Ren. She didn't even know him, yet she bowed and pleaded for his sake. She slowly raised her head and began to pick up the papers off the ground. Swallowing my pride as a teacher hater, I leaned down and helped her.

She looked at me and smiled, "arigato."

I handed her the papers as we stood, "I'm not doing this to help you. I'm doing this for Ren."

Her smile widened, "you like Ren, don't you?"

I huffed, "before you get the wrong idea, I'll have you know that Ren is like, no **is** my older brother, and I'll do what it take so we can graduate together like we promised."

"Yoshi," she handed me half of the paper, "you can take the area around the Shirokin Tunnel and I'll take downtown. That okay with you?"

I nodded, "hai."

For the next couple of days, Yamaguchi and I passed out papers and asked people to help find the real culprit. We would start as soon as school ended and until midnight and on weekends. One day after school, we decided to work one area, and she started asking me questions.

"So Saitou, how did you end up at an all-boy school," she asked as she tried to hand a paper to a woman but was ignored.

"No other school would take me," I handed a paper to an older man who seemed to be more interested in my legs, "keep walkin' perv!"

At the tone of my voice, the man quickly walked away.

Yamaguchi chuckled slightly, "well I see why you were placed in 3-D."

"No. The reason for that is I punch a teacher," she gasped, "he placed his hands on Ren violently."

"Oh, I see," she smiled, "so you were just protecting your friends."

"Yeah."

She was about to say something when her phone rang. Her eyes went big suddenly, and I immediately knew there was trouble. She hung up her phone and took off. I followed her. We stopped in front of the police station. A taxi pulled up and Sawatari got out followed by Ren.

"Kazama."

"Ren."

Ren looked at me then dropped his gaze. Sawatari grabbed his arm and began pulling him towards the station. He kept his gaze forward, but started talking to Yamaguchi.

"You knew didn't you, Yamaguchi-sensei. That Kazama was near the crime scene," Yamaguchi tried to think of a reply, "the police heard it from Ogata, Yamato."

My eyes widened. Ogata told the police and crushed our chances of proving Ren's innocence. The police came and took Ren away. I felt the tears coming, but i refused to let them drop.

"Ogata."

I turned to where Yamaguchi was looking to see Ogata watching us. He dropped his gaze and began to walk away. I walked after him. Sensing me following him, Ogata walked faster.

"How could you," I shouted after him, "you bastard! Now, thanks to you, they think Ren is guilty. I thought you were an okay guy because you saved that little girl, but no! You're just a selfish bastard! Ren is innocent, but you threw him under the bus. I'm talking to you," he stopped walking and I stopped, "you may not believe in Ren, but I do and so does Yamaguchi, and we will do anything to prove his innocence! What happened, Ogata? What happened to the guy who saved that little girl?!"

I turned and walked away. I whipped my tears away. I heard fast footsteps behind me. I turned to see Ogata running towards me. He ran past me.

"Matte," I yelled running after him.

He slowed just a little, "what? I thought you wanted to find the real culprit."

I smiled. We ran to the downtown area and began our search. We went to a club and looked around. I went up to the bartender. He said he didn't have a clue about the culprit. I thanked him. I turned to leave when Ogata came up beside me. He glanced over to his right. I followed his gaze to see an older man with dark hair. He reached across the bar to reveal a tribal tattoo. I looked at the paper. It was a match. The man left the club. We followed.

"You should get out of here," Ogata whispered to me as we followed him down the street.

"I can handle myself," I whispered back, "I don't see why you care."

He rolled his eyes, "do what you want."

The man turn down an alley. We quickly followed not wanting to loose him, but when we turned the corner, he was gone. We ran down the alley to see if we could catch up to him.

"So you two are ones following me."

We turned to see the man behind us. I heard footsteps behind us. I turned to see two guys walking towards us. I turned back around to see two other guys behind the dark-haired man.

"You're the one responsible for the serial muggings, aren't you," Ogata asked.

The man stepped forwards, "what if I am?"

We were grabbed from behind and dragged to a warehouse. A bunch of other guys were already there. They closed and locked the warehouse door and threw Ogata to the other guys. The men began to punch and throw him around. I struggled against the man holding me. He laughed.

"Seems like this girl wants to join her boyfriend, Hiro," the dark-haired man turned to us, "what should we do?"

Hiro smirked, "toss her in with him."

The man threw me in the crowd. They began to punch and toss me about like Ogata. I tried to find my footing, but it was impossible. They finally threw me to the ground by Ogata.

Hiro pulled Ogata's hair so he would look at him, "have you and your girlfriend learned your lesson yet?"

"Because of you, someone else has been falsely accused," Ogata groaned.

"So what," Hiro snapped.

"I'm going to...," Ogata grabbed Hiro's jacket, "take you to the cops."

Hiro threw Ogata off making Ogata roll on the ground.

"Don't fuck with me," Hiro yelled kicking Ogata in the stomach earning a cheer from his pals.

I struggled to my feet, "stop it already!"

The men looked at me. Hiro laughed and looked at Ogata.

"Looks like your girlfriend still has some fight in her," Hiro smirked, "watch as I beat it out of her."

Ogata coughed, "stay away from her. Your fight is with me, you bastard."

Hiro kicked Ogata in the side making me snap. I jumped on Hiro's back.

"Don't touch my nakama!"

Not getting a good grip on Hiro, he easily threw me to the ground. He began to kick me until a loud bang shook the warehouse. Thanks to the distraction, I crawled over to Ogata, who was barely conscious. Suddenly the warehouse door blew open. I quickly covered Ogata to protect him from the debris that came at us. I looked up to see Yamaguchi standing in the doorway. She looked at us then at Hiro.

"So many adults ganging up to beat up two high schoolers, and one of them is a girl," she pulled out her pigtails, "you sure are pathetic."

"Who the hell are you," Hiro asked.

"Me," she asked taking off her glasses, "I'm their home room teacher."

I looked down at Ogata to see he was unconscious then back up at Yamaguchi and Hiro's gang.

"Homeroom teacher," they laughed.

Yamaguchi did a slight head toss, "I'd like you to give back my precious students."

Hiro narrowed his eyes, "don't give me that "precious student" crap. Don't make me laugh."

"School is meaningless," one of his pals added, "they don't have much of a future after high school, anyway. I mean, these guys are no different from rejects like us, anyway."

"Don't think of them as one of you," Yamaguchi yelled, "In order to take responsibility for his actions and for the sake of her friend, they came here alone. Even though they were beaten this badly, they tried to save a comrade! That's pretty respectable!"

The men approached her, "don't look down on us!"

I watched in amazement as she dodged, kicked and punched her way through the men to Hiro. Hiro picked up a pipe and swung it at her. She easily dodged every swing. She then hit Hiro right in the gut making him drop to the ground unconscious. I smiled at her as she walked to us putting her glasses back on her face.

"The police are on their way. Let's get out of here," she said before slinging one of Ogata's arms over her shoulder.

I weakly got up and slinged Ogata's other arm over my shoulder. We walked out of the warehouse. We kept walking until we came to a sakura tree on a hill. We placed Ogata at the base of the tree so his head could rest on a root. I sat between him and Yamaguchi.

I turned to her, "where did you learn to fight like that?"

"Could we keep today a secret," she asked putting her hair back in her pigtails, "I could get in trouble with the school for fighting."

I shrugged, "whatever. It has nothing to do with me, anyway."

She smiled. She was about to say something, but a groan cut her off. We looked at Ogata. He opened his eyes.

I sighed in relief, "oh good, you're awake."

"What happened to those guys," he asked sitting up.

Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow, "those guys?"

"The culprit," he said a little irritated.

"When I got there, they had already been apprehended," she lied.

"Huh? But...," Ogata looked at the ground like he was remembering something then back at Yamaguchi.

She smiled, "you two...going overboard. Thank you though, for finding the culprit."

He looked away from her, "it has nothing to do with you."

"I was happy."

He looked back at her, "huh?"

"You believed Kazama, didn't you," she asked.

"I just paid for what I had done," he said trying to act cool.

"I see," she smiled not believing him.

He started to stand.

Yamaguchi quickly stood to help him, "can you make it home by yourself?"

He shoved her away, "I'm not a kid."

She sighed, "even so... But you are one of my precious students. You, Kazama and Saitou."

He glanced at me as I stood then met Yamaguchi's eyes, "don't make me laugh."

He grabbed his bag then made his way down the hill. I followed him after saying bye to Yamaguchi.

"Arigato," he stopped and turned to me, "for helping Ren."

"Whatever," he mumbled before walking off.

I smiled and then went home.

* * *

I look around confused. Before class even started, everyone was called down to the gym. Sawatari stood on stage.

"I have an announcement," he announced in the mic, "you might already know this... A student from 3-D came under suspicion for the serial muggings. Thankfully, the real culprit has been captured, but even being under suspicion is a shameful thing!"

Before anyone could blink, the boys of 3-D started shouting. They made their way up to the stage only to be pushed back by the male teachers. The teachers tried to calm them down.

"How can we calm down after having our comrade falsely accused?!"

That pissed me off. They didn't care before, but now that Ren was proven innocent, they want to defend him. I was about to yell at them when Yamaguchi's voice cut through the chaos.

"Don't make me laugh!"

We all turned to the entrance to see Yamaguchi. 3-D walked up to her glaring.

"Can you guys really talk that big? What did you do when Kazama was suspended? Was there a single one of you who believed him besides Saitou," the boys' dropped their gaze in guilty especially Ichi and Kura, "was there anyone who tried to defend him saying he wasn't the culprit? Don't say he's your comrade when it's convenient," she shouted getting her point across.

She walked and got up on stage, "You guys. Clear your ears and listen carefully. You don't call yourselves comrades, if you're just hanging together to have fun. Real comrades take each other head-on, have complete faith in one another, and develop a lifelong relationship. Don't live a meaningless life, not knowing that much! You still have a lot of time until you graduate. It's not too late. Make some real invaluable comrades. I'll be with you guys until the very end. Don't run away!"

I smiled, 'this is going to be one interesting year.'

I looked at the entrance again to see Ren and Ogata. I ran to Ren throwing my arms around him. He laughed pulling away then frowned when he saw my face.

"Who gave you these bruises," he demanded.

"The culprit, but don't worry. Ogata got him for me," I said turning to Ogata.

Ren mumbled a thanks. Ogata shrugged it off and walked away. I rolled my eyes at both of them.

'Boys.'


	3. Episode Two

Episode Two

It had been a week since the incident with Ren. Surprisingly, Yamaguchi has yet to quit her position as our home room teacher. Despite her constant annoying voice in our class everyday, everything was pretty normal. Like today, a couple of fights broke out. I sat by Ren in the back watching as the boys threw punches at each other. Ichi and Kura were sitting in the front row cheering the fights on as Ren calmly watched. I looked over at Ogata. He was sitting in his desk watching the fights like a leader while Honjo and Kamiya were standing cheering on the fights like Ichi and Kura.

I silently laughed at the six, 'they're more alike than they realize.'

The door slid open. Yamaguchi walked in with Sawatari and Yajima. As the two male teachers yelled at the boys to stop fighting, Yamaguchi tried to pull them apart. Kamiya and Honjo yelled at them telling them that the fights had nothing to do with them. Yamaguchi fell in front of Ichi and Kura. I laughed as they shooed her like a dog. She got back up only to be shoved to the ground again. She suddenly got up on the desk at the front of the class.

"Give it a break already," she demanded causing the class to become silent, "If you want to fight that badly, I'll take you on! Let's go outside!"

Everyone looked at her in shock. She gasped as if she realized something.

She got down from the desk, "Outside...ow...," she knelt down and grabbed her ankle, "ow ow ow ow!"

"Does she honestly think that cover up will work," I mumbled.

The class remained silent for a few more seconds before the bell rang for lunch. Everyone walked out of the classroom like nothing happened. I made my way to the roof. I laid down on one of benches. I watched a few clouds slowly float by before closing my eyes to catch a few minutes of sleep. Suddenly the roof door opened making me open my eyes and jump. I watched Ogata grumpily walk to the edge of the roof. He sighed and leaned against the edge not noticing me. He sighed again.

"I can't sleep with all that sighing you're doing," I announced catching his attention.

"And? Does it look like I care," he snapped looking out to watch others having lunch in the grass.

Ignoring his comment, I got up and walked to him. I leaned against the edge.

"I thought you would've skipped by now with Honjo and Kamiya," I said watching some boys in 3-D stealing some freshman's lunch.

"We were going to, but that annoying teacher...," he grumbled, "why does she try so hard when she knows we hate teachers?"

I laughed, "maybe that's why she tries so hard."

He looked at me, "so what about you? Why aren't you with Ren?"

"Just because we're childhood friends doesn't mean we're always together," I said plainly.

"But aren't you two...," I raised my eyebrow at him, "never mind."

"What? You thought that me and Ren...," I laughed giving him a little shove, "that's gross. He's my brother."

He smiled. I felt my face heat up and quickly looked away hoping he didn't see the blush.

"Um, Ogata..."

"Yamato."

I looked at him shocked, "huh?"

"You can call me Yamato," he put on his tough guy act, "but don't think this makes us friends or anything."

"Wouldn't think of it."

The bell rang signaling the end of lunch. We walked to class. When we walked in, he went to his friends, and I went to mine. They looked at me wide-eyed.

I sat down, "what are you three gawking at?"

Ichi leaned towards me, "were we seeing things or were you just with Yamato?"

I scratched the back of my head, "what? No...um..."

Before I could say anything else, Yamaguchi walked in. I sighed in relief. She placed a yellow can on her desk.

"Let's start the 3-D "kick the can" competition," she cheered.

I rolled my eyes, 'baka.'

"Hey! Why do we have to do this childish crap," Honjo complained.

"What this class needs right now is a sense of solidarity and friendship. In order to build that, everyone needs to work and sweat together, and get passionate about the same thing," she explained trying to sound wise, "of course, I'll be participation too."

"What the hell is "kick the can" anyway," Kura asked.

"Huh? You don't know," she said looking at him like he had two heads.

"We don't know, right," Kamyia moved his hand in the air over the class getting nodded in agreement.

Her eyes widened a little, "you guys don't know the fiery and fun game? The world's at its end."

"You always exaggerate things," Ichi commented.

She explained the game and said it was the perfect game for us at the moment. Before leaving, she told us to change into our gym clothes and head out to the field. Of course, no one followed her.

I turned to Ren, "so when are you and Yamato going to fight?"

He crossed his arms, "right after school at Shirokin shrine. Wait, did you just call him Yamato?"

I blushed, "umm...well..."

Kura poked my cheek, "look she's blushing."

I slapped his hand away, "baka! I'm not blushing."

"Yes, you are," Ichi laughed, "it's almost like you like Yamato."

I froze. Their jaws dropped.

"Do you," Ren whispered.

"Of course not," I laughed, "why would you think that?"

The three sighed in relief. I glanced over at Yamato. He was looking right at me. I quickly turned around.

'Oh please tell me he didn't hear our conversation,' I prayed, 'please!'

* * *

After school, the whole class made their way to Shirokin shrine. Everyone made a line and began to cheer. Ichi, Kura and I stood on the left side while Honjo and Kamiya stood on the right. Ren and Yamato walked up to each other. Yamato threw his bag to the side as Ren just tossed his to the ground.

"Don't lose Yamato," Honjo yelled.

"Deck him good Ren," Kura punched the air.

Kamiya pointed at Yamato, "you'd better win."

"Go ahead and knock him out," Ichi said coolly.

The class began to cheer louder, "go! Go! Alright!"

"Don't lose you two!"

Everyone became quiet and turned to Yamaguchi, who was standing in the middle of the line.

"Go all out! Fire away," she whooped and punched the air, "fight! Fight!"

Yamato rolled his eyes, "why are you here?"

"Anyway, wouldn't you normally stop it," Ren asked in confusion.

"There's no need to stop a "bare-one," right?"

"Bare-one?"

"A bare-handed one-on-one fight, don't you know," she asked like we were stupid.

"Of course, we don't," Honjo answered.

"Either way, I won't stop it," she announced, "go ahead and fight each other with all your strength. You guys will become real comrades."

Ren huffed, "comrades?"

"Right. Guys wanting to be the boss are like that," she explained earning a glare from Yamato.

"What do you mean comrades," Ichi asked.

"You keep saying that, don't you," Kura observed.

"Let me tell you," Yamato said getting her attention, "I'm not fighting for that."

She sighed and took a step towards him. Before she could take another step her phone rang.

"Just a second."

She walked off, but we could still hear her conversation.

"A brawl at the Shirokin shrine?"

That caught our attention. We walked up behind her so we could hear better. She said something about us having an adorable side causing me to snicker a little.

She hung up and turned to us, "the fuzz are coming."

"Fuzz?"

"The cops," she panicked, "everyone run!"

Without hesitation, everyone ran out of Shirokin shrine. Once out, we scattered. I ran until I couldn't run anymore. Catching my breath, I looked around. Ren and the others were no where in sight. I took a few steps and felt a pain in my right ankle. Groaning, I looked down.

"Great," I said to myself, "I sprained it."

I took out my cellphone to call Ren, but it was dead. I forgot to charge it last night. I started walking with a slight limp. I kept walking until I saw Honjo's blonde hair, and where there's Honjo, there's...

"Yamato!"

The three turned to me. Honjo and Kamiya groaned at the sight of me, but Yamato had a blank look on his face. I limped my way to them.

"What do you want, girly," Kamiya asked obviously irritated.

Ignoring him I turned to Yamato, "can I borrow your cellphone right quick?"

Honjo leaned down so his face was level with mine, "now why would we do that? Why don't you go bother Ren, your little boyfriend?"

I glared at him, "okay, one: he is not my boyfriend; two: does it look like he's here right now, and finally: you're just jealous because a girl hangs out with him while girls run from your ugly face."

"Nani," he growled.

"Honjo, let it go," Yamato ordered, "here," he handed me his phone.

Honjo and Kamiya looked at him in shock as I smiled, "arigato."

I dialed Ren's number. He picked up on the first ring.

_"What do you want, Yamato," he snapped._

"That's a rude way to answer your phone," I laughed.

_"Heza? Why are you calling from Yamato's number," he asked in a panic._

"That's not important right now," I said glancing at Yamato's group, who were watching me intently, "where are you?"

_"Walking with Ichi and Kura."_

"That doesn't give me a location, baka," I lectured, "I'm going to your house."

_"Why?"_

"It's closer," I answered, "I hurt my ankle and don't want to walk all the way home."

_"Alright. Ja ne."_

"Ja ne," I hung up and handed Yamato back his phone, "arigato. Ja ne."

I walked off. I turned and waved. Yamato raised his hand slightly in response earning another shocked look from Honjo and Kamiya. I got to Ren's house as his sister, Kaoruko, was leaving for her night job. She smiled when she saw me.

"Konnichiwa Heza! Ren's not here right now."

"I know. You see, I hurt my ankle."

"Say no more," she handed me the key to their small apartment, "make yourself at home. You know where the food and extra futons are, and Ren should be home any minute."

"Arigato."

She shook her head, "no need to thank me. You are welcome here any time. Well I have to go before I'm late. Sayonara."

We hugged, "ja ne."

I walked in the apartment that I considered my second home. I looked at the time and decided to make dinner. As soon as it was done, Ren walked in. He grabbed some ice from the ice box and ordered me to sit. I plopped down on a floor cushion. He gently took my right ankle and pressed the ice to it.

"Itai!"

He quickly took the ice away, "gomen," he pressed the ice to my ankle again but more gently, "why did you have Yamato's phone?"

"My cellphone was dead so he let me borrow his," I explained trying to ignore the pain.

"He just let you borrow it?"

"Hai."

He nodded, "I see."

Once the ice was melted, he wrapped my ankle. He gave me some of his clothes to wear for bed. We ate dinner then went to bed. When I woke, I screamed causing Ren to jump awake. He landed on his head with a bang. He quickly recovered and made his way to me.

"What's wrong?"

"My ankle," I whined.

He carefully unwrapped my ankle. I flinched when I saw it. It was swollen and purple. Kaoruko ran in half asleep. Her eyes widened at the sight of my ankle.

"Go get dressed for school, Ren," she said softly, "I'll help Heza."

As Ren got dressed, Kaoruko handed me two painkillers before re-wrapping my ankle. She helped me stand as I got dressed. She gave me a few more painkillers to take with me before saying bye and going back to sleep. Ren and I slowly made our way to school with me leaning against Ren with every step. We made it to the park when Yamato walked in front of us. By the look on his face, I knew he wanted to fight Ren. I guess Ren noticed it too because he nodded. He led me to a stump so I could sit. Ren walked back over to Yamato.

"Let's do this," Yamato started walking towards Ren.

"Time-out," Ren said turning his gaze away from Yamato.

Yamato stopped, "huh?"

"Hey, can we stop this already," Ren asked seriously which shocked me a little, "I don't really care if you lead the class."

"That'd be meaningless," Yamato yelled angry that Ren didn't want to fight him, "unless I beat you in a fight, I can't call myself the head."

Ren shrugged, "I don't really care any more about being the head or ruling Akadou."

"Well then start caring," Yamato growled before punching Ren in the face.

I yelled for Yamato to stop as he kicked Ren to the ground.

"Stand up! Bring it," Yamato yelled.

Ren got up, "you ass!"

He punched Yamato. The two threw punches and kicked at each other. I flinched every time Ren or Yamato's fist collided with the other's face. I was fine with them fighting until they picked up a piece of wood. Forgetting about my ankle, I ran to stop them before they hit each other, but Yamaguchi beat me to it.

"Stop playing around," she grabbed their weapons and threw the boys to the ground, "a one-on-one is supposed to be bare-handed," she threw the pieces of wood to the ground.

"Whether bare-handed or armed, winning's all that matters in a fight," Yamato argued.

"You didn't stop us yesterday, did you? So why the hell are you stopping us now," Ren yelled in frustration.

"Because yesterday was bare-handed," she said like she was talking a child, "the brats nowadays don't know how to fight properly. They don't understand moderation, they go overboard," she said more to herself than the boys shaking her head, "listen up. When you hit someone, your own fists hurt, right? If you feel that pain, you shouldn't want to hit someone for no good reason."

"We don't need a lecture on hitting someone," Yamato interrupted, "a fight is fought in order to win!"

"That's not it at all," she said softly.

"Yamato!"

"Ren!"

I looked over to see Honjo and Kamiya running to Yamato, and Ichi and Kura coming up to me and Ren.

"Alright, listen well," I turned my attention back to Yamaguchi, "people can't live on their own. In order to live you have to have comrades. Real comrades are those who will be with you when you're in the most pain. They can show their weaknesses and tears in front of you. Before you realize it, they're by your side. A fight is to protect those comrades and other things that are precious to you. Fighting just for yourself is meaningless."

"Can it with the pretty words," Yamato said interrupting her again, "I can't take all this shit from you teachers!"

With that said, he walked off with Honjo and Kamiya following. Yamaguchi called after him as Ren turned and left in the opposite direction of Yamato. Ichi and Kura followed, but I stayed.

"Just don't forget this," she called after them, "there's no top, bottom, high, or low among comrades. Those things don't matter," she watched them walk away then turned to me, "nani?"

"Nothing just wanted to say thanks for stopping them," she smiled at me, "well I better catch up to Ren before he thinks I followed Yamato."

"You've accepted Ogata as a comrade, haven't you?"

I thought back to the warehouse incident last week.

_Flashback_

_Hiro kicked Ogata in the side making me snap. I jumped on Hiro's back._

_"Don't touch my nakama!"_

_End of Flashback_

I smiled slightly, "I guess I have."

I caught up to Ren, and we walked around town. My ankle was killing me, but I didn't complain. I knew Ren was pissed, and none of us wanted to bother him. It was nighttime when the guys started to talk to Ren to cheer him up.

"There's a cute girl working at that restaurant now. Let's go there," Kura suggested.

"Not interested," Ren grumbled.

We kept walking as Kura talked about going to karaoke. We were passing an overpass when Ichi stopped us.

"Hey, isn't that Yamato?"

I looked under the overpass to see Yamato, Honjo and Kamiya being beat up by the Yellow Jacket gang. I wanted to go and help them, but I knew I didn't stand a chance against all those guys even if my ankle was 100%. I looked at Ren, who was trying to decide what to do. Suddenly he ran into the overpass with a yell. He grabbed one of the caution stick and began swinging it making the gang back up. Ignoring my ankle, I ran to Yamato.

"Let's run for it," Ren called.

I grabbed Yamato's hand and took off. The seven of us ran until we came to the little bridge by Shirokin shrine. We sat down out of breath.

Ichi panted, "I can't run anymore."

"We should be fine, coming this far," Honjo said looking around.

"Man, if I run anymore, I'm going to die," Kura complained.

Kamiya nodded in agreement, "no kidding."

After catching our breath a little, we noticed who we were sitting beside. Ichi with Honjo, Kura by Kamiya, and I was sitting between Ren and Yamato. I froze realizing that I was still holding Yamato's hand. As he and Ren turned away from each other like the others, I quickly let go of his hand. The guys went silent in embarrassment.

"Are you hurt," Ren asked breaking the silence.

"Nah," Yamato answered.

"I see...," Ren said awkwardly.

Yamato sighed, "I owe you one, huh?"

"It doesn't matter," Ren mumbled.

We all stood. Yamato said bye to Honjo and Kamiya before heading home. I called after him. He stopped. I said bye to Ren and walked up to him.

"Mind if I walk with you? I'm this way too."

He shrugged before walking again. As we walked, there was a silence between us, but surprisingly, it wasn't weird or awkward. It was a comfortable silence until I stepped wrong and hissed.

He stopped and turned to me making me stop too, "daijoubu?"

I looked at him, "oh, un. I hurt my ankle running from Shirokin shrine yesterday, but I'm fine now."

I smiled to show I was fine, but he saw right through it.

"Baka," he started walking again, "where's your house?"

I walked after him, "I can make it from here on my own."

"No, I'll walk you," he stated leaving no room for argument, "now which way?"

I pouted and pointed the way to my apartment. We walked along until we came to my apartment. I turned to him.

"Arigato, for walking me home," he nodded, "and thank you for last week. I never thanked you for helping that little girl."

He shrugged, "it was no problem."

"You're good guy Yamato," I smiled.

Before I could stop myself, I kissed him on the cheek. With a quick good-bye, I entered my apartment and closed the door.

* * *

I laughed. Kura was complaining none stop about running too much yesterday as we made our way to school.

"Hold on! I ran so much yesterday. I'm all sore!"

"You're sore! Try running with a sprained ankle," I said only to be ignored.

Ichi and Ren laughed.

"Kura, you're totally out of shape."

"Ah! I can't run anymore," Kura yelled to the sky.

"Metabolic Syndrome," Ichi asked making me and Ren laugh harder.

Kura chased us. We ran until the gang from last night circled us. Ren immediately went into big brother mode holding me protectively to him. The leader stepped forward.

"Thanks for yesterday."

We were forced to a warehouse where the gang began to beat us. We tried to fight back, but there were too many. With my ankle in shape it was, I couldn't fight like I wanted. Ren one time pushed me out of the way when a guy swung a pipe at me. He hit Ren in the back making him drop. Ichi and Kura soon joined Ren on the ground. The leader pulled my hair to keep me from falling.

"With high school brats looking down on us, we can't maintain face."

"Stop it!"

Everyone turned to the entrance to see Yamato, Honjo and Kamiya.

"What, did just three of you come to save these guys," the leader asked all smug, "are you idiots?"

The gang laughed.

"Those guys weren't involved. Keep your hands off them," Yamato demanded.

"Don't fuck with me," the leader pulled my hair harder, "they're your comrades, right?"

"They're not my comrades," Yamato responded trying to protect us, "so get your hands off of her!"

The leader let go of my hair allowing me to fall to the ground, "stop talking nonsense!"

Yamato's gang ran at the Yellow Jackets entering the fight. I stood up with the Ren and the others. We all tried to fight them off, but were still out numbered. Under the pressure of my ankle, I drop to the ground. I felt like passing out as I got kicked in the stomach and back over and over. I closed my eyes. Suddenly I felt weight on top of me. The person wrapped their arm around me protectively. I clinged to their jacket as I slipped into unconsciousness. The last thing I registered was Yamaguchi's voice.

"Cut it out!"

* * *

I opened my eyes and groaned from the brightness of the sun. I sat up.

"You woke up."

I looked to my right to see Yamaguchi sitting beside me in the grass. I looked around to see we were beside the sports field at school. All of 3-D were running around with smiles on their faces.

"What are they doing," I stretched.

"Kick the can."

"Nani?"

"You had us all worried," she stated.

"I didn't mean to worry anyone," I groaned, "how did I get here?"

"You were carried. I didn't think I would ever see him that worried about someone."

I smiled, "Ren is a softie when it comes to his friends."

"I'm not talking about Kazama," I tilted my head in confusion, "Ogata is the one who carried you."

I looked out at the guys and saw Yamato laughing with the others. I felt my heart beat faster. Yamaguchi continued.

"After bring you here, he didn't want to leave you. The others convinced him that you would be fine, and I said I would sit with you so he could go have fun with the others."

"I'm glad he did," I admitted.

Ichi looked over at me, "HEZA!"

This caused everyone to look at me. I gave them a small wave as they ran to me. They swarmed me with questions and cheers. I stood only to feel a horrible pain rip through my body. I began to fall when someone supported me. I looked up hoping it was Yamato, but I saw Ren's face.

"Don't get up so fast," he lectured.

I stuck my tongue out at him and smiled. Everyone laughed at us.

"You had us all worried," Honjo said as Kamiya lightly patted my head.

I smiled, "you guys.."

"You sure did," I looked over to see Yamato walking up to me. He had a serious look on his face,"don't scare us like that again."

I could tell he was trying to act cool in front of everyone and laughed, "hai."


	4. Episode Three

Episode Three

I waited for my favorite six so we could walk to school together. I was happy. No, more than happy. I was ecstatic. Not only was my ankle all healed and I could finally walk without any pain, Yamato and Ren agreed to being co-heads of Akadou. Now instead of being separate gangs of three and four, we were a gang of seven.

"Heza!"

I turned to see the boys walking up to me in a line. On the right (from my POV) were Ichi and Kura; on the left were Kamiya and Honjo with Yamato and Ren in the middle. I jogged up to them.

"Ohayou," I walked in between Yamato and Ren completing the line, "I'm so tired."

"When aren't you tired," Ren ruffled my hair.

I swatted his hand away, "when I'm sleeping," Yamato laughed, "I'm being serious."

He didn't say anything, but kept his smile.

"Ah, I know how you feel Heza. I'm feeling lazy today," Honjo stretched.

"Should we skip," Ren suggested.

Kura jumped up and down excitedly, "yeah, let's! Let's go to karaoke!"

"Karaoke again," I sighed, "can't we do something quiet while we skip so I can catch so z's?"

"Wouldn't that be a waste," a voice said behind us.

We turned to see who it was but no one was there. Were we hearing things? Suddenly something hit each of us in the back of the head.

"Good morning you guys!"

We groaned as we recognized the voice. We turned again to see Yamaguchi standing there all cheerful like she was every morning.

"Not going to class on such a perfect day for studying. How would you plead before the Sun God," she asked.

"Huh?"

You guys seem to be getting along great. I love it," she cheered.

"What is that," Kura looked at her like she was stupid, "do you have a problem?"

"Of course, I have no problem," she dramatically look off into the distance, "isn't getting along a beautiful thing?"

Yamato called her an idiot, and we started walking again. We started making some food suggestions when Yamaguchi pushed her way through sending me flying into Yamato. I quickly moved away as Yamaguchi turned to us.

"Don't be late! Your beloved beautiful teacher is waiting for you," she said before running off.

"Beloved," Ren asked in confusion.

Yamato laughed, "beautiful teacher?"

We all tilted our heads, "who?"

When we got to the classroom, we all moved our desks to the middle of the back. I started to rest my eyes when Kamiya hugged me from behind.

"I never noticed before, but Sai-chan is kawaii," he squealed.

"Get off," I said in a monotoned voice not opening my eyes.

Ignoring my comment, Kamiya hugged me closer to him, "did you ever notice Honjo?"

I opened my eyes to see Honjo shaking his head. He leaned towards me so our face were a few inches apart.

I heard Ren groan at how close the two boys were to his 'little sister', "leave her alone guys."

"Do you have a boyfriend Sai-chan," Honjo asked ignoring Ren.

I arched my eyebrow at him, "Sai-chan?"

"That's our nickname for you. Do you like it Sai-chan," Kamiya whispered in my ear.

His breath made my ear tickle, and it wasn't the 'laughing' tickle. It was the 'itchy' tickle.

"Guys quit harrassing Heza," Yamato demanded.

Honjo muttered apology before leaning back in his chair while Kamiya removed his arms from my person and went to his desk pouting.

"What about you Yamato," Kamiya asked, "did you notice before how kawaii Sai-chan looked?"

"Yeah," Yamato answered like it was an obvious answer.

The boys jaws hit the floor, "nani?!"

I felt my face heat up.

"And to think we thought you weren't normal," Honjo laughed.

"Yeah! Everytime we would go to hook-up parties, he wouldn't go," Kamiya explained.

The guys laughed, except Yamato, and then got on the subject of hook-up parties. I didn't pay any attention to them. I was still shocked by Yamato's answer.

'He thinks I'm cute,' my heart began to beat faster, 'he thinks I'm cute! Cute!'

"Heza, you okay over there," Ichi asked pulling me out of my thoughts.

I gasped realizing I had a big, goofy grin on my face. I quickly dropped it to a small smile and nodded. They shrugged and went back to their conversation. I sighed in relief.

'Thank you for making them so dense.'

Minutes later, Yamaguchi walked in with a hand-made bandana on and carrying a poster. She stuck the poster on the board before turning to us with a huge, determined smile. She explained that she wanted us to take part in next week's sports competition.

"I call it, Yankumi and 3-D's Win-at-Rugby Operation," she clapped.

"By the way, what does Yankumi mean," Kura asked.

"That's my nickname. Don't hold back, call me that."

The class started to ignore her going back to their fun and conversations. I read the poster further and noticed something.

"By the way," everyone went silent and turned to me, "the phrase is 'All for One, One for All'."

She looked at me in shock, "really?"

"Yeah. My mom was American so she would have me watch old American movies with her. One of them was The Three Musketeers," I explained.

Everyone laughed at her mistake as she looked at the poster in panic as if it was the end of the world. After recovering from her mistake, she tried to encourage us to get us pumped up for the sport's competition. Of course, no one liked it because it was too much work and not really '3-D', but she still told us to meet her out at the field. I'll admitted. I admire her determination to get us into school events.

* * *

After school, we all decided to walk around. We ended up passing a tennis court where the girls from Momo High were practicing. Ren, Ichi, Kamiya, Kura and Honjo glued themselves to the fence as me and Yamato put our backs to them in embarrassment. I rolled my eyes at their stupidity.

'Yet they wonder why they don't have girlfriends.'

"A sports competition without girls is meaningless," Ren declared grabbing the fence.

"I want half the class to be girls," Ichi wished.

Kamiya agreed but said, "two-thirds girls wouldn't be bad either!"

"Three-thirds would be good, too," Kura countered.

"That'd just be a girls' school," Yamato noted as the guys stupidly nodded in agreement with Kura.

"Why is our school only guys," Honjo whined getting the girls' attention.

I glared at him, "I'm not a guy."

Yamato grabbed the collar of my jacket to keep me from killing Honjo. One of the girls hit a ball over the fence. The boys stared at it frozen. A second later the boys began tripping over each other trying to get the ball. The girls began to back up in fright as they fought over the ball. Once the boys noticed the girls turned to run away, they tried to jump the fence, but the fence was to high. As they hanged on the fence, they called after the girls. When the girls didn't come back, they got down in disappointment.

"Let's go," Yamato said letting me go.

In frustration, Kura tried to throw the ball over the fence, but instead it hit the top of the fence. The ball bounced off the fence then bounced left and right before flying towards us. We moved out of the way. After the ball passed by me, we heard a crash. We slowly turned to see a blonde man on the ground rubbing his head where the ball hit him. Before the man saw us, we ran for it.

"That was close," I panted.

The guys nodded in agreement. We found a nearby drink machine and got a can drink. We kept walking trying to think of something to do. After a few gulps, I didn't want mine anymore.

"Does anyone want the rest," I asked holding up my drink.

"Wait, if I drink from that can, it would be like an indirect kiss from Sai-chan," Kamiya squealed clinging to Honjo, who nodded as Kura and Ichi laughed at them.

The two reached for the can, but Yamato grabbed it. He drank the rest and threw it away. Kura and Ichi looked at him in shock as Kamiya and Honjo froze with their hands out.

Yamato looked at them like nothing happened, "what?"

"Our indirect kiss," Kamiya and Honjo whined.

Ren rolled his eyes, "I wish you two would stop. It's pathetic."

I laughed, "oh yes and staring at girls through a fence is admirable. Totally boyfriend material."

"Shut up," he mumbled.

"Why are you getting on to us and not Yamato for having an indirect kiss with Sai-chan," Kamiya asked looking at Ren intently.

Kura, Ichi and Honjo joined Kamiya and stared at Ren waiting for him to answer.

"It's simple. I'd rather her date Yamato than you two and be fine with it," he simply stated, "Kura and Ichi are her brothers like me so I don't have to worry about them."

"Don't you just love it when people talk about you as if you're not there," I said to Yamato, but spoke loud enough so the others could hear me.

"Well would you want to date them," Ren argued.

"Of course not, but that doesn't mean I like to be talked about when I'm walking right beside you," I barked back.

We glared at each other before dramatically turning our heads from each other. The others watched us in amusement. Oh yeah, we were siblings. Maybe not by blood, but brother and sister all the same.

* * *

The stars were out by the time we reach the downtown area. Much to my frustration, we still didn't decide on what to do. I finally gave up and let the boys decide.

"Where shall we go," Kura asked excitedly.

Kamiya snapped his fingers, "shall we go to our usual place?"

"Let's go," Ren said making Kura jump more with excitement.

"These guys were studying until now," Honjo asked in awe as students flowed out of the doors of the Advanced Educational Seminar.

"Duh, it's a cram school. That's why we don't go," I laughed, "right Ichi?"

Ichi didn't answer. He was talking to some guy who just left the cram school.

"Takasugi?"

"Ichimura."

Ichi smiled, "man it's been a long time."

Takasugi looked Ichi up and down, "see ya," he walked up to his friends, "sorry."

"What, do you know someone from Akadou Academy," one of them asked.

"No, I don't know that guy," Ichi's face fell, "let's go."

Takasugi looked back at Ichi, but kept walking. Ichi's face fell more.

"What was that," Ren asked not sensing the atmosphere, "someone you know?"

Ichi nodded, "yeah."

"But man, he's got a pretty bad attitude," Kura yelled hoping the snob heard him.

"That uniform is from Aoshiba school, right," Yamato asked being the observant one.

"Huh, Aoshib...Aoshiba," Honjo asked looking at Yamato, who nodded, "isn't that where the really smart kids go?"

This made Ren more curious, "why do you know someone from there?"

"Well...," Ichi smiled, "you know, I went to Aoshiba for junior high."

We jumped back in shock, "huh?"

"Hey Ichi...were you actually smart," Kamiya hesitantly asked trying not to offend Ichi.

Ichi laughed at our reaction, "I guess. But I fell behind and couldn't go the high school there."

"But it's amazing just having been there," Honjo complemented.

"But you can't tell that now, can you," Ichi said doing one of his famous poses.

Honjo mocked his pose, "not like we can!"

We laughed and started walking again. Ichi fell behind as we talked about playing darts. I seemed to be the only one to notice and slowed down to walked beside him.

"You okay Ichi?"

"Un," he sighed, "just thinking."

"Don't worry about what that jerk said."

"I won't," he smiled, "hey Heza, do you like Yamato?"

"What," I blushed, "of course not! Quit trying to change the subject from you to me."

He laughed, "so you do like him."

"Shut up," he laughed harder, "stop making fun of me!"

* * *

I was pissed. Pissed at every fuckin' teacher at that school except Yamaguchi. When something bad happens, they point their fingers at us. First, Sawatari comes barging in our class suspecting us for messing up a picture of the Director of our school, and I'll admit that it probably was one of us. Second, he has the balls to say we were most likely responsible for the recent attack that were happening at night.

"Calm down Sai-chan," Kamiya said putting his arm around my shoulder, "you act like it hasn't happen before."

I moved my shoulder out from under his arm, "I know, but it still pisses me off."

"I agree with Sai-chan," Honjo said, "that damn Sawatari is always accusing us of doing stuff like that."

"Should I deck him once," Kura asked making laugh for the first time that day.

"Hey look there," Ren pointed to a takoyaki stand.

Our conversation was dropped as we ran over to the stand.

"Three takoyaki please."

The men behind the stand gave us our order. We paid then sat on the benches they had in front of the stand. Kamiya shared with Honjo while Ichi shared with Kura, and I shared with both Ren and Yamato.

"Yamaguchi...do you think she's still waiting for us," Kamiya wondered taking a bite.

Earlier when Yamaguchi defended us, again, against Sawatari, he say her poster for the sports competition. Of course, he said the competition had nothing to do with us which angered us. Thinking we were motivated, she told us to meet her out at the field again, but as always we didn't follow.

"She's really persistent," Honjo said with his mouth full.

"Maybe we should've gone to the practice for once," Ren said earning him some weird looks from us, "Yamaguchi has done a lot for me..."

Yamato paused, "well, that's true."

Getting up to leave, the two guys behind the stand called to us, "hey you guys. You're from Akadou Academy?"

We nodded.

The one with the mustache held out a takoyaki, "here's one on us. Take this with you."

We looked at each other in confusion. Ren told Kura to go get it. He hesitantly reached for it.

"Um thanks."

The man suddenly grabbed his arm making us all flinch, "listen carefully to what your teacher says."

"Okay."

He let go of Kura. We backed up a little before turning and running away. When we were a good distance away, we stopped.

"That was just weird," I said.

The guys nodded. We walked until we ended up in the downtown area again. Kura mentioned something about karaoke. The guys started complaining about Kura's voice.

"Gomen," Ichi called, "I'm heading home first."

Before we could say anything, he ran off.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Who knows."

I thought for a moment, "you don't think it has anything to do with that guy from last night. You know, the one from Aoshiba."

They shrugged.

"I'll go talk to him," Kura said before running after Ichi.

* * *

I walked into the classroom to see Sawatari leaning over Ichi's desk. I walked out, went around and walked in through the back door. I moved my way through some of the guys and sat down at my desk which was inbetween Ren's and Yamato's.

"What's going on," I whispered to no one in particular.

Ren answered, "Ichi hit that Aoshiba guy."

"Eh? You mean the one from the other night."

"Yeah."

"What's the reason? Didn't you hear me Ichimura," Sawatari asked leaning closer to Ichi, "what is your reason for hitting a student from Aoshiba High School?"

"Ichimura, you have a reason, right? Tell us," Yamaguchi said wanting Ichi's side of the story.

"It was their bad," Kura began but Ichi stopped him.

"You guys probably started it, didn't you? There's no reason Aoshiba students would start anything with you," Yajima said before hiding behind Sawatari.

"Head teacher, I will have a good talk with him. Can you leave it at this for today," Yamaguchi requested then bowed.

"We'll have to consider a severe punishment for Ichimura," Sawatari said smugly before leaving with Yajima.

Yamaguchi turned to Ichi, "what happened? You're not the type to hit someone without a reason."

"Ichi didn't do anything wrong. Those Aoshiba bastards were getting all cocky...," Kura tried to explain, but Ichi stopped him again.

"Don't say anything unnecessary."

"Yeah, but...Ichi was their classmate in junior high," Kura explained to Yamaguchi, "even so, those guys were saying bad stuff."

"That doesn't matter," Ichi yelled standing up, "it doesn't matter, does it? I got upset and hit him. That's all," he sat back down, "I wonder if I should drop out of school."

We all looked at him in shock, "huh?"

"Ichimura," Yamaguchi exclaimed.

Ichi continued, "dropping out won't make a difference anyway. Our future won't amount to much anyway. Everyone probably thinks the same way," no one said anything so he continued with his point, "well, I guess we can pretty much picture it. We're different from Aoshiba students. We're always immediately suspected. In the end, we get pegged right away. Nothing's going to change, huh?"

"Why," Yamaguchi asked, "why do you have to compare yourselves against others? Whether you're labeled or not, aren't you pegging yourselves? It's not the world or the teachers, you're comparing yourselves against others! Then, you throw in the towel from the start, saying it's no use. Your lives aren't over at this point! It goes on and on after school is over! You can start over whenever you realize you need to."

Her words cut deep, and she was right. But that only made Ichi madder.

"Those are some pretty words," he stood and got in her face, "like some damn teacher would understand my feelings!"

He left. In the years I've known him, I've never seen him loose his cool like that. The next day he didn't come to school. I sat in my desk depressed. What if he did drop out of school? After school, Kura finally told us what happened.

"You need to tell Yamaguchi," I told him.

"No way," he argued, "why would I tell a teacher?"

"Because she believes in him," I explained, "you need to tell her so she doesn't think that her believing in him is a waste."

Kura sighed, "alright."

We went to the classroom to find Yamaguchi staring at Ichi's desk.

She looked up, "what's wrong guys?"

I pushed Kura forward.

"Ichi..," he began, "he hit that guy from Aoshiba for my sake. No matter what that guy said Ichi just took it. But...I got upset and got ready to hit him."

Yamaguchi nodded in understanding, "I see."

"Ichi...He's that kind of guy," Ren said softly.

"That's all I wanted to say. See ya," Kura said wanting to get out of there.

We started to leave, but Yamaguchi stopped us.

"You guys. You've got some good points, don't you?"

"Shut up," Kura yelled trying to hide a smile.

The next day Ichi still didn't show. Kura texted him saying we were waiting. I sighed, and Yamato put his arm around my shoulder in comfort. I was too upset to blush or even worry about it. I just wanted Ichi to come back to school and be with us. The door slid open, but sadly it wasn't Ichi. It was Isoge with his three friends, and they were wrapped up. They made their way to us and began talking to Ren and Yamato. They told us how they end up like that, and Ichi's reaction when he saw them.

"He said Takasugi," Ren asked.

Isoge nodded, "yeah."

"It was those Aoshiba bastards from before," Kura reminded us.

"Those Aoshiba guys, screwing around like that," Ren growled.

"Yamato, what should we do," Honjo asked, "are you just going to leave it like this?"

We turned to Yamato, who looked really scary at the moment.

"It's obvious, isn't it?"

Ren jumped up and left along with Yamato, and where are leaders go, we follow. We looked all over for Ichi and that Aoshiba bastard. Finally, we got word that they were in a warehouse behind Aoshiba. We ran all the way there, never stopping. When we got there, we saw seven Aoshiba students circling a beaten Ichi with metal pipes in their hands.

"Stop it," I shouted getting there attention.

"You guys," Ichi said weakly.

We picked up pieces of wood, pipes and anything else we could use as a weapon.

"You bastards," Yamato yelled, "you've treated our friends so nicely."

"I hope you're prepared," Ren threatened.

The Aoshiba students threw their weapons to the ground confusing us.

"If you want to hit us then hit us," Takasugi said, "but we'll run to the police. When we do, it's you that will be in trouble. You might all be expelled, huh? Maybe worse than expelled."

"Shut up," Kamiya demanded.

Honjo hit the ground with his weapon, "who cares about expulsion!"

"If that's the case, then we'll tell the police that you're behind the serial beatings, " Kura yelled getting yells in agreement.

The Aoshiba students laughed, "do what you want. But you know, I wonder who the world and the police will believe? Adults aren't in the habit of believing you guys, are they? No one will believe anything trash like you will say."

"Damn you!"

We went to hit them, but a voice stopped us like always.

"I'd believe it!"

We turned to see Yamaguchi. Walking towards us, she began to get in her serious mode.

Takasugi raised an eyebrow, "who are you?"

"Me? I'm their homeroom teacher," she simply stated.

"Huh?"

She walked in front of us so she was between us and the Aoshiba bastards, "don't do anything."

"Don't interfere," Yamato demanded.

She turned to us sharply, "you still don't understand, do you? If you start something here, you'll sink to the same level as these guys!"

"Same level...that hurts a bit," Takasugi said smugly.

She turned back to them then looked at the metal pipes on the ground, "are you elite students playing with such things?"

Takasugi sighed, "unlike these guys' fighting, we are cleaning up the world. If we continue like this, we'll be winners. But these guys have no value to society. These guys have no future."

"Of course, they do," Yamaguchi yelled, "true, society looks at these guys as the bottom of the barrel. They can't study and only cause problems. They are guys who, before even trying, quickly say "whatever" or "what a pain." But you know. Everyone, just like you, has lots of possibility. They just haven't taken that first step. They have the same future as you. Once they take that step, they can start to change!"

After a short pause, Yamato tossed his weapon to the ground followed by Ren and then myself. Everyone followed suit shocking the Aoshiba students. After hearing the last weapon hit the floor, Yamaguchi continued.

"To judge people's worth by their academic ability alone, isn't that the worse thing you can do as a human being," she asked, "no matter what sort of high and mighty reason you give, what you are doing is a full-fledged crime."

In panic, Takasugi picked up a metal pipe. He swung it at Yamaguchi, but she grabbed it.

"Guys like you who don't understand people's feelings or pain...have no right to determine people's worth," she pushed him to the ground, "you guys can start over too."

Takasugi got up and ran with his friends not far behind. We ran to Ichi. Ren and Yamato stood him up and supported him. I laughed a little when Yamato poked a scratch on Ichi's face making him flinch and Kura swat his hand away. We were all back where we belonged, together.

"You got us worried," we turned our attention to Yamaguchi, "well done guys, for not starting anything."

"Someone stopped us like made, that's all," Yamato mumbled.

I nodded, "yeah, someone whose words cut deep."

She looked at us proudly, "that means you've made progress by one step. Don't forget. You guys can change and have lots of possibilities. You can make your own future. So have more confidence in yourselves. Right, Ichimura?"

On the way back to school, Ichi stopped us.

"Hey," we turned to him, "the sports competition, let's participate. I don't want to keep feeling bad like this. I don't want to give up before I even try. You don't know until you try."

"I'm in," Ren announced.

"Eh? You're in," Honjo joked.

"Me too," Kura jumped a little.

Kamiya looked at the sky, "I guess I'll do it too."

Everyone started to agree, "Me too!"

"Me too!"

"Me too!"

"Me too!"

"Geez..," Yamato said sarcastically, "no choice, huh?"

I raised my hand, "even though I'm not allowed in the competition, I will cheer you guys on!"

"Nani?! Can you imagine Sai-chan in a cheerleader outfit," Kamiya went off to his own world.

"Oi! You perv," I yelled going to attack him, but Ren beat me to it.

He put Kamiya in a head-lock. Kamiya started screaming while tapping Ren's arm. We all laughed as Ren let Kamiya go.

"Alright, let's do this," Yamaguchi cheered, "fight-ohhhh. Oh!"

I stayed by Yamaguchi as the guys played rugby. They were laughing and having a great time.

"That's the way," we cheered.

Ichi threw Yamaguchi the ball, "here you go, Yankumi."

She smiled at the ball until she realized, "you...just called me Yankumi."

"What about it," he laughed, "we can call you that as many times as you want."

We all agreed.

"Alright everyone," she pointed out to the distance, "we're going to race into the sunset! Let's go!"

"Huh?"

"Hurry up and come on," she encouraged.

"There's no sunset," Yamato laughed.

We smiled before running after Yankumi. I ran along side Ren. I looked around then looked at him.

"Hey Ren," I panted, "can I ask you something that's been bugging me?"

"Hai," he panted back.

"What you said the other day about how you wouldn't mind it if I dated Yamato, did you mean it?"

He stopped, "nani?"

I stopped and turned to him, "I'm serious. Did you mean it?"

He shrugged, "I guess. Why, you like him or something?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I think I do."

"Well when you figure it out, ask me again," he said before taking off.

I sighed and looked at the sky. Did I like Yamato and if I did, did he like me back?


	5. Important Message

Because of recent events, I will not be updating as constant as I would like to. Updates will come later and later so I apologize. Please bare with me; this sucks for me too. Thank you for reading Gokusen 3 up to this point. I hope things will clear up so I can update like I want which is everyday. Thank you ~SheebaDiva


	6. Episode Four

Episode Four

Everything was going pretty normal. The sports competition just ended, and everyone in 3-D were going to celebrate, but first we had to choose a place to have our party.

"Yamato, which one," Honjo asked handing Yamato a magazine full of party places.

He smiled and pointed to one, "this one looks good."

The class cheered.

Ichi twirled the rugby ball in his hands, "now that the sports competition is over, it's time to celebrate."

The class cheered louder. They started talking about drinking and other stuff that we were too young to do.

"You guys are just walking into the Head Teacher's hands," Yankumi said.

We jumped back at her sudden appearance.

"Why are you here," Yamato asked hesitantly.

She started to say something when Kamiya let out a shout, "why are you okay?"

"Don't tell me," Honjo pointed to the back door of the classroom, "you came through that door."

Yankumi nodded, "yes I did."

"No," the class groaned in defeat.

I laughed at how dramatic they were being just because she didn't fall for their trick. Yankumi asked if there was something wrong with the other door. Before anyone could answer, the door slid open and the board eraser that was meant for Yankumi fell on a woman. The class froze. My eyes widened when I finally recognized the woman. I slowly began to shake Ren, who was asleep this whole time, awake. Hearing the woman's coughs, he turned his head to her.

He quickly stood, "aniki!"

The boys gasped, "aniki?"

"You're Kazama's older sister," Yankumi asked slowly.

Kaoruko nodded making the boys gasp again.

"Eh?!"

Yankumi ushered the Kazama siblings to the office and told us to stay put, but being the curious bunch we were, we followed. Yamato and I stood inside the office by the door while the others bunched up in the doorway staring at Kaoruko.

"She's so pretty."

Yamato rolled his eyes, "you guys."

I narrowed my eyes at them, "hands off."

I watched as Kaoruko handed Yankumi one of her business cards, but it was for her hostess job. Ren quickly snatched away from Yankumi's hands and gave it back to Kaoruko scolding her. Kaoruko quickly put it up and handed Yankumi her other card that showed she was a dentist assistant. Kaoruko explained that they didn't have any parents so she had to work two jobs so they could eat. Sawatari chose then to enter the office.

"Oh Kazama, what have you done this time," he asked as he walked up to the three.

Yankumi stood, "Head Teacher, this is Kazama's older sister."

Kaoruko bowed to his when she was introduced.

"Kazama's older sister," he looked at Kaoruko curiously then his face lit up, "Sara-chan!"

Kaoruko looked at him and smiled, "Goro-chan!"

"Goro-chan?!"

Sawatari looked at us then around before focusing his attention on Kaoruko, "Sara-chan, you're Kazama's older sister?"

"You're a teacher at this school," she smiled, "thank you for taking care of Ren."

"No, no, he's a bright young man," he said getting curious looked from all of us, "take your time."

As he went to his desk, I turned to Yamato, "sounds like he's a regular."

He covered his mouth trying not to laugh. The others started to snicker. We just got the best advantage against our Head Teacher aka 'Goro-chan'. We turned our attention back to Kaoruko when she hit her hand on top of a small envelope that had money in it.

"Ren, what is this about," she demanded.

Ren shifted in his seat, "why did you go into my room?"

"What's up with this money," Kaoruko demanded again ignoring Ren's question, "you've been coming home late."

"It's money I earned at my part-time job," he stated.

Sawatari got up and walked over, "part-time jobs are prohibited at our school!"

Kaoruko stood and bowed to him, "I'm sorry."

Sawatari quickly went soft mumbling something about family circumstances. Kaoruko stated that she would make Ren quit, but Ren argued back saying he need the money to move out.

He leaned back in his chair, "I can't continue to rely on my sister."

"Kazama, what are you saying to Sara-chan...I mean your sister," Sawatari said trying to be the voice of reason in front of Kaoruko.

Ren glared at him, "shut up."

"What's with that language?"

"You got a problem," Ren gave his signature smile, "Goro-chan."

"Kazama... you..."

Ren stood and grabbed Sawatari's jacket. Yankumi and the other teachers separated the two. Sawatari called Ren a punk making Ren even more mad. Ren threw Yankumi off him sending her into the table. She was about to scold him when Kaoruko slammed her hand down.

"Cut it out! Live alone? You can't do anything on your own! Don't make me laugh," she scolded Ren.

Everyone looked at her in shock except me and Ren. As kids, we always saw this side of Kaoruko.

"Sara-chan, were you like that," Sawatari asked hesitantly.

Kaoruko gasped and went back to her sweet self, "I'm sorry. It sort of came out...  
========================================================================

That night, instead of hanging out with the guys, I went home. I entered my quiet apartment and closed the door. I was about to lock it when a loud yelp sounded right outside. I opened the door again to see a small puppy running from four young punks. I got really angry because animals, especially small animals, were my number one weak point. I closed and locked my door then ran after the punks. I found them in an alley. They had the puppy trapped and were throwing things at it.

I ran up and kicked two to the ground then punched one into the wall. The last one standing was fast. He dodged my fists and kicks. He pulled a knife from his pocket and began swinging it at me. I dodged. I was getting tired and the other guys were coming around. They stood and along with the fourth, circled me. I braced myself for their attacks, but they did come. A figure suddenly came out of the shadows and took down all four. I half-expected it to be Yamato, but this isn't a movie.

Instead it was a very handsome man. He was tall and slender. His hair was dark and short but not too short. He wore a suit with sparkles and a rose in his front jacket pocket. He walked up to me putting on a smile that made my heart skip a beat.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes," I said weakly then cleared my throat, "I mean I could've taking them."

He chuckled and picked up the puppy, "I'm sure, but that face shouldn't be scratched, let alone scarred."

I felt my throat go dry as he looked me in the eyes, "well either way, do I get to know the name of my... I mean of the puppy's rescuer?"

He laughed again sending chills down my spine, "Takahashi, Akio. You can call me, Akio."

"Glorious hero, interesting," I smiled, "I'm Saitou, Heza. You can call me, Saitou."

"Playing hard to get," he smirked, "alright I'll play," he handed me a card, "this is my card. If you ever find yourself in the neighborhood, you should stop by."

He winked then walked off taking the puppy with him. I looked at the card. It read: Host Club Sweet Castle. No wonder he was dreamy. His job is to make women swoon. I pocketed the card and went home.  
-

The next day I could get Akio out of my mind. I didn't pay attention to anything. When I tried, his face would pop into my head. It was annoying yet exciting at the same time. I didn't even notice it was break until Kamyia shook my shoulder.

"Sai-chan, did you hear what we said," he motioned to him and Honjo.

I shook my head, "sorry, I didnt'. Can you repeat what you said?"

"Ren is working at a host club," Honjo practically yelled.

Him, Kamyia, Ichi and Kura started whining about not having girls. After getting there acts together, we decided to go and find out for ourselves if Ren was working at a host club. There was only one problem: we were high schoolers. High schoolers weren't allowed in host clubs.

"Which club does he work at, anyway," Yamato asked making Honjo and Kamyia think.

Kamyia shot up, "it was called Sweet Castle."

I gasped, "really," he nodded, "this might be easier than I thought."

This made the guys look at me in confusion.  
========================================================================

Right after school, we went home and changed clothes. The guys looked very casual, but I dressed up a little. I wore a flurry shirt with a tank top that showed my belly. To top it off, I wore three inch heels. We met up at the Shirokun Tunnel. The guys' jaws dropped went they saw me.

"Close them boys. You'll catch flies," I stated like I was wearing anything different than I normally do.

"What are you wearing," Yamato asked... no demanded.

"Does it matter? We need to get going," I said before walking towards Sweet Castle.

When we got there, we tried to sneak in, but I guess I was a little too dressy. Every host we pasted would stop and try to have me request them. It was weird because every time they did, they would look behind me then quickly walk away frighten, but when I looked behind me, I only saw Yamato, who would be looking in a different direction. Despite that, we made our way through the club.

"Well, well, well, look who decided to come," a voice laughed behind me.

I looked to see Akio smiling with two drinks in his hands.

"I didn't think you would show," he said handing me a drink.

I placed the glass down, "I'm here strictly on business."

He smirked, "I like business."

"I'm sure you do."

"Sai-chan?"

I turned to see the guys looking between me and Akio except Yamato. He was glaring at Akio.

"Aren't you going to introduce us, Heza," Kura asked giving Akio a brotherly look along with Ichi.

"This is Takahashi, Akio. He rescued a puppy near my apartment last night," I said trying to avoid what really happened last night.

Not sensing the atmosphere, Akio laughed out loud, "man you sure do love playing hard to get. Look baby..."

Before anyone could blink, Yamato grabbed his collar, "she is no ones baby, especially not your's. Quite being so friendly with her."

"Alright, I won't do it again," Akio slowly removed Yamato's hands, "watch the suit. It's tailor made. See ya around, He...Saitou."

Once Akio was out of sight, I turned to Yamato, "what is your problem?"

He turned his glare to me, "you shouldn't let him be so friendly towards you. You don't know him."

I put my hands on my hips, "who I allow to be friendly towards me is my business, not your's Ogata, Yamato. I don't see why you care anyways."

He turned to the others, "lets find Ren."

Rolling my eyes, I followed the guys to the back of the host club. Unfortunately, a host didn't like a bunch of high schoolers at his host club and began to push us to the front door.

"It's a bit too early for a high schooler to want to become a host," he yelled.

The guys started to argue trying to push past the guy, but failed.

"You guys?!"

We turned to see Yankumi. I froze in shock. Yankumi at a host club? What was the world coming to?

"What are you doing here," she asked.

Before we could answer or make fun at the fact that Yankumi was at a host club, we heard a name that catch our attention.

"Kazama, I'm leaving this here."

Yankumi tilted her head, "Kazama?"

We walked to a doorway that lead to the kitchen. I wanted to laugh at what I saw. Right behind the counter washing dishes was Ren in an apron.

"Kazama!"

"Ren!"

He looked at us in confusion, but it turned to embarrassment, "you guys?!"

The same guy who was pushing us towards the door walked up, "Kazama, do you know these guys?"

"Not really," Ren said trying to cover up the fact that he was a high schooler.

Ren ended up getting fired. As we were leaving, I was pulled aside by Akio.

"Look I know your boyfriend told me not to be friendly with you, but..."

"Oh Yamato's not my boyfriend."

He smiled, "that's good to hear. Means I might still have a chance. Would you like to go get something to eat some time? Then maybe I can get to know you better and won't be grabbed."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. He doesn't usually lose his cool like that, ever actually. I don't know what got into him."

"Well if I was friends with a beautiful princess, I wouldn't want just anyone being friendly with her either."

I smiled and rolled my eyes playfully, "those lame host lines won't help you with me. I don't fall for them."

"Interesting," he mumbled, "so is that a yes or no?"

"Sure, why not."

"Great. I'll meet you at Shirokun park at eight two Tuesdays from now."

"It's a date...I mean..."

"No. This is definitely a date."

I smiled. I waved bye then caught up with the others. We went to our regular hang out as Ren complained.

"Man... I can't believe that I lost that job in only a week."

Ichi put his hands to getting, "sorry Ren, it as our fault."

"It's because you were faking your age while working," Yankumi lectured.

"My dream of being popular with girls," Honjo cried making Ichi, Kura and Kamiya cry with him.

Yamato laughed at them, "you guys..."

Turning my attention away from the whiners, I listened to Yankumi lecture Ren.

"Kazama. You shouldn't worry your sister so much."

Ren brushed her comment off, "it doesn't have anything to do with her."

"Of course it does!"

Ren quickly stood up, "I'm sick of talking about her," after a few seconds of silence, he grabbed his bag, "ja ne."

"Huh? Hey Ren," I called after him.

I was about to go after him, but Yamato stopped me.

"Leave him be for now, besides I need to talk to you."

We walked to the other side of the room so the others wouldn't hear.

Yamato sighed, "I'm sorry I grabbed that guy at the club the way I did. Your right. You can make your own choices, and as your friend, I'll respect them."

I eyed him, "Yankumi's making you say this, isn't she?"

"Whatever. Do you accept my apology or not?"

"I do, and as far as my choices go. I've decided to go on a date with him."

"WHAT... I mean... great, good for you."  
-

I walked into class thinking that everything was going to be back to normal, but I was wrong. I didn't even sit down when Isoge ran through the door saying something about Ren being expelled. Not waiting for any details, I ran to the front office running into Kaoruko on the way. She looked like she was about to cry.

"What happened Kaoruko? I heard Ren is going to be expelled."

She nodded, "he is but I was trying to get him to apologize for hitting a cop, but he wouldn't. Then he told me that his life had nothing to do with me so I slapped him."

"Let me guess, he got angry and stormed out," she nodded, "well looks like we need to go look for him. After all, he has a promise he needed to keep."

Kaoruko smiled. We ran out of the school and began our search. We looked everywhere. I was about to get really frustated when I heard Ren's voice.

"Let go!"

We spotted Ren being pulled by three older guys. They dragged him under the overpass where we saved Yamato that one time. They started beating Ren. Kaoruko tried to pull the guys off of Ren, but they just pushed her back. She tried again. This time one of the guys pulled her back and was going to punch her, but I got in the way and took the punch.

"Heza, are you okay," Kaoruko asked as the three started to beat Ren again.

It was about to get really bad, but like always, Yankumi was there to stop it. She got the guys away from Ren and got into her serious mode.

"Who are you," one of the guys demanded.

"I'm his homeroom teacher," she simply said.

"A teacher?"

"You ever hit a girl? You sure are scum," Yankumi nearly yelled.

"I don't know what you're talking about," one said before swinging at Yankumi.

She dodged his fist with ease. She then made two hit the ground. The leader swung, but Yankumi was faster. She stopped her hand from hitting the leader centimeters from his face scaring the shit out of him.

"If you want to get serious, I'll take you on," she yelled.

They ran, "let's get out of here!"

As they ran away, Yamato and the others ran up. They ran to Ren.

"Ren! Are you okay?"

I got up and went to him, "hey. Are you okay? You worried us!"

We carried Ren outside as Kaoruko ran off somewhere. He sat down and the guys knelt down by him.

"What are you doing when you might get expelled," Yamato asked.

"My bad," Ren mumbled.

"Kazama. Let's go back to school. Let's apologize to the chairman, and get her to forgive you," Yankumi said trying to convince him.

Kaoruko came back with a napkin. She began to attend to his cuts.

"Are you okay," she asked gently.

Ren slapped her hand away, "don't make me look bad," he got up and walked off a little, "don't worry about me anymore. I've decided to live on my own."

"What are you talking about, Ren," I asked sternly, "you should be grateful to have Kaoruko. Take it from me who has no one."

"This has nothing to do with you," he yelled before turning to Kaoruko, "don't you think that it'd be better if I was gone?!"

"Stop saying stupid shit," Yankumi shouted getting our attention, "do you think you've been living alone up until now? Your sister raised a punk like you and looked after you until now. She just tried to save you back there, risking herself for you. So did Saitou because she considers you her brother and the only family she has left. Someone who didn't want you around wouldn't have done something like that! Why do you think the cop dropped the fact that you hit him?"

"Huh?"

"Teacher," Kaoruko said trying to make her stop talking, but once Yankumi starts, she keeps talking until her point is made.

"It's because your sister begged him to," Ren's eyes widen a little in realization, "for your sake, she kept bowing and bowing. You've always been protected by your sister like that. Both of them. Listen well, Kazama. Family might be something you take for granted. But it's not. You'll have to go separate ways someday. You understand, don't you? From your experience. From Saitou's. So, till then, no matter how much of a pain or a burden it might be, you've got to support each other! You too, you have to protect your sisters, too."

Ren looked from Yankumi to me to Kaoruko back to Yankumi, "I'm not good enough to do that."

"Yes, you are," I argued, "only you can do it. Like me, you are Kaoruko's only family."

Ren looked at his hand. His eyes showed that he was remembering something. Without a word, Ren took off.

"Kazama!"

"Ren!"

We ran after him. He lead us back to school. We followed him inside. He stopped in front of Sawatari and the chairman. We stopped and watched.

Sawatari stepped up, "what do you want? Expulsion is... something the chairman decided."

Ren bowed his head shocking us. He stood up straight and looked the chairman in the eye.

"For hitting the policeman... and causing trouble to the school... I sincerely regret it. I don't want to quit school," he admitted.

"You committed a grave mistake. Making you take responsibility for that is the school's responsibility," the chairman said making my heart drop.

"I... thought that school didn't matter. But now, now...," Ren took a deep breath, "I really want to graduate. For my sister's sake. Both of them. If I don't straighten out... I can't protect them. Please don't expel me. Please."

Ren bowed his head again. Kaoruko and i followed. The chairman began to walk past Ren but then paused.

"Be grateful to your sister... Both of them," she said before walking away.

"Chairman," Sawatari called making her stop again, "what about Kazama's expulsion..."

"Head teacher Sawatari."

"Hai?"

"We'll let it go this time," she said before walking again.

Ren let tears fall, "thank you!"

As Ren bowed again, Sawatari walked after the chairman. After he left, we cheered.

"Woohoo!"

We all, except Kaourko and Yankumi, circled Ren.

"You were so cool," Honjo said pulling on Ren jacket playfully.

"You're crying," Kura pointed out.

"He is crying," I laughed.

We left the school and began to walk home. I pushed Ren and Kaoruko forward so they could have a moment. They exchanged a few words before Ren pushed Kaoruko.

"Why are you crying?"

"Shut up. I'm not crying," Kaoruko smiled running after Ren.

"You were totally crying," Ren laughed running from Kaoruko.

From watching the sibling exchange, Yankumi sniffed and began to whip her eyes. We couldn't help but make fun of her.

"Hey, are you crying too," Kura laughed, "she is!"

Kamiya pointed at her, "loser!"

"It's just sweat," Yankumi pushed us forward towards the Kazamas, "come on, let's go!"

We ran forward. Ren pulled me to the side.

"I'm sorry that I yelled at you," he held out his pinky, "but I promise we will graduate together."

I smiled and wrapped my pinky around his, "it's a promise."  
-

We walked into class, but there was one thing missing. Yamato went back out in the hall and pulled Ren inside. He pushed Ren forward.

"Yo."

One guy stood, "Ren!"

"How did it go?"

"Let's do our best until graduation," Ren gave them his signature smile.

The class cheered as we made our way in the middle of them.

"Alright! Everyone's here, right," Yankumi asked getting our attention, "listen up everyone, let's get pumped up! All 29 of you guys in 3-D, we're going to graduate together! Oh!"

We gave her weird looks as she threw her fist in the air.

"Come on, you guys too! Fight-oh... Oh," she threw her fist up again.

We put our fists up lazily, "oh..."

"You're too soft! Fight-oh... Oh!"

"Oh!"

"Fight-oh... Oh!"

"Oh!"

"Fight-oh... Oh!"


	7. Episode Five

Episode Five

It was finally here. The day I was going to have my first date, ever. I admit I was excited and nervous, but I wasn't being all girly about it. I kept my cool through school. My heart started beating faster as Yankumi's math lesson came to an end.

"Because today and tomorrow we have parent-teacher conferences in the afternoon, we'll end the lesson here," Yankumi announced.

We cheered.

"What should we do," Honjo asked, "any suggestions Sai-chan?"

I turned to the gang, "sorry, I have a date today."

They all looked at me in shock, except Yamato, "nani?!"

I smiled, "yeah with that guy, Takahashi, Akio, remember?"

"Hey Chiaki, let's go play some darts after lunch," Yamato suggested before the guys could say anything.

That got them off the subject of my date quickly. I narrowed my eyes at Yamato. He avoided my eyes.

Honjo shot up cheering.

"Honjo, Kuraki, Saitou," Yankumi called getting our attention, "your conferences are today, aren't they?"

"Ah, I forgot...," Honjo whined.

"Ain't it just my mom," Kura asked.

"No, it ain't," we groaned, "I told you all, didn't I? This time it's a parent-student-teacher conference. We're going to be focusing on your future. Have you thought about it?"

"Our future is still a long way off," a guy lazily said.

Yankumi nodded, "of course there's no need to decide now. Whether it's college or work, it's not a decision to take lightly. You need to think about it ahead of time."

"I've decided," one of the guys up front called out.

"Huh," Yankumi walked up to him, "is there something that you want to do?"

"I want to be a 'freeter'."

"A freeter can be various things," Yankumi smiled, "first off, what sort of part-time job?"

"Part-time job," he asked confused, "a freeter is a man who can live freely. Right?"

Honjo busted out laughing, "what an idiot! It's to breed dogs."

We turned to him.

Yankumi's smile dropped completely, "Honjo...That's a 'Breeder'."

He rubbed the back of his head laughing at his mistake. We laughed at him and turned back to the front. As soon as class was over, Honjo, Kura and I stood outside the classroom. There were a few others waiting with us. Soon their mothers came to wait too. I sadly watched the others interact with their mothers, and then, walk in and out of the classroom together. I was the last one to be called. I walked in and sat down. I glance over at the empty chair beside me as Yankumi sat down across from me. I looked up at her.

She smiled, "we can talk while we wait for your guardian."

I rolled my eyes, "no one's coming."

Yankumi sighed, "you didn't remember to tell your guardian?"

"No, I don't have a guardian," I stated plainly, "you can write that I haven't decided what I want to do with my life yet."

I got up to leave, but Yankumi stopped me from walking out.

"Saitou, if you ever want to talk, I'll listen."

Holding tears back, I walked out of the classroom then out of the school. I kept walking until I found myself in the park. I went over to a bench and sat. I watched kids playing with their parents thinking about how lucky they were to have each other.

"Heza!"

I turned to see Akio running up to me. He was wear a suit similar to the one he was wearing when I met him. I got up as he stopped in front of me.

"You're here early," he said catching his breath.

"So are you," I laughed.

He looked me up and down.

He raised an eyebrow, "is that what you are wearing?"

"What's wrong with it," I asked looking down at myself.

Akio sighed, "sweetie, when you go out with a host, you dress up, put some make-up on, and do something with," he waved his hands over my head, "this. I have a reputation to keep as man who only dates the most fashionable of women."

I opened my mouth to speak, but he held his hand up to stop me as his phone rang.

"Moshi, moshi," he put his hand down, "no, I'm not doing anything tonight. I'll be right there," he hung up, "I have to go to the club tonight. Maybe we can re-schedule for tomorrow for a lunch date."

"But I have school."

He rolled his eyes, "You can skip. I'm sure you do it all the time because of those 'friends' of yours. Oh, and be sure to doll yourself up. Got a rep to protect."

With that said, he walked off. I looked down at myself again. Maybe Akio had a point. Maybe I should dress up a little more and wear, dare I say it, make-up.

* * *

The next morning I got up and went over to Ren's. He had already left for school, but luckily, Kaoruko was still there. I asked her to help me put some make-up on before she left for her day-job. She was a little confused at my request, but then said 'what the hell' and sat me down. She pulled my hair back and began to apply the make-up.

"Can I also borrow one of your outfits," I asked making her freeze.

"What's going on, Heza," she narrowed her eyes at me, "you're not doing this for a boy are you?"

I sighed, "his name is Akio."

Kaoruko tilted her head, "what about Yamato?"

"What about him?"

She started to apply my make-up again, "according to Ren, you like him and he likes you back."

I looked at her with shock, "what, he doesn't like me."

"Ren told me that when you passed out from pain, he carried you, and then didn't want to leave you," she smiled, "if you ask me, it sounds like he likes you."

I rolled my eyes, "if he likes me, it's just as friends."

Kaoruko chuckled, "just think about it, and I know you like him too."

"Whatever."

Once she was done, I put on her light blue outfit. It was short and revealing, but oh well. I finally got to school a couple of hours late. I walked in the classroom through the back door. Yamato and Ren were in the front of the class, along with Kura, Ichi, Kamiya, and Honjo.

"That's the way it is," Yamato announced, "we need your help."

Kura sat a box down on the front desk. It say: Honjo's emergency relief! Big collection box.

"If everyone chips in some, we may be able to make it work," Ren said.

Ichi put his hands together, "please, everyone help to save Honjo."

"Alright! Let's chip in," the class cheered.

They stepped up and emptied their pockets. Knowing I had nothing in my pockets, I just sat back and watched. When everyone's pockets were empty, they sat in a circle. Kura dumped the box. Everyone looked down at the small amount sadly.

"Let's give it a count," Kura said trying to lighten the mood.

"There's no need," Yamato stated upset with the small amount.

"It's nowhere near enough," Kamiya sighed.

"At this rate, he may have to quit school," one guy said making me more confused about what was going on.

Ren stood up, "alright! We have no choice but to work ourselves."

The class nodded.

Yamato stood and stepped forward, "let's do it! 3-D Operation save Honjo with part-time jobs!"

Ren stepped forward, "fight-oh..."

"Oh!"

I got up and walked over to Ichi, "is Honjo in trouble?"

"He may have to quit school," he turned to me then jumped back, "what happened to you, Heza?"

At his sudden action, everyone turned to us. They're eyes widened and looked me up and down. Ren quickly took off his jacket and put it over my shoulders trying to cover me.

"What are you wearing," he said getting in his brother mode, "it looks like something my sister wears to her night job."

"It is something she wears to her night job," I shoved his jacket to him, "it's no big deal."

Kamiya stepped forward, "no big deal..."

He slowly looked behind him. I looked over his shoulder to see Yamato scaring the others with his famous glare. He came over and turned his glare to me.

"You're dressed this way because of Takahashi, right," he growled.

I glared right back, "why? Are you jealous?"

The guys went silent and took a few steps back away from us.

"Why would I be jealous of someone who changes others," he growled.

I got in his face, "maybe because he has someone and you don't, and he's not changing me."

He raised an eyebrow, "have you looked in the mirror lately?"

"A girl trys a new look and the first thing you think is that her boyfriend is the reason," I argued back.

He shook his head and turned to the others, who were all the way across the room, "well, we know what Heza's job will be."

Without another word, he left. I went after him.

"Hey, wait a sec," I called.

He stopped and turned to me, "what now?"

I stopped in front of him, "why do you care if I change my look?"

He sighed, "I think you should be with someone who won't change you. I think you need someone who will like you for you."

I crossed my arms, "like who?"

"Well...," he rubbed the back of his head.

When he didn't answer, I rolled my eyes and left to find a part-time to help Honjo. I looked all over, but nobody wanted a high schooler working for them. I was about to go to the next place when someone called my name.

"Heza!"

I turned and saw Akio walking up to me with a huge smile. He looked me up and down then whistled.

"Lookin' good."

Not in the mood for compliments, I just rolled my eyes. Not sensing my mood, he continued.

"Seriously, you should dress like this everyday," he looked at the store I was about to go in to, "what are you doing here?"

"Looking for a part-time job."

"Why?"

"Honjo needs the money."

He sighed, "one of those boys you hang out with," I nodded, "okay, you win."

He took out his cellphone and made a call. I didn't really follow the conversation.

He hung up, "alright. A friend of mine is going to help...um.."

"Honjo."

"Yes, Honjo," he smiled really big, "now, can I take this pretty lady out for dinner?"

I smiled, "sure."

He put his arm out for me to grab. I wrapped my arm around his, and he took me to dinner. After a wonderful night out, Akio walked me back to my apartment. We said good-bye and he left.

* * *

I awoke to the sound of my phone. I groaned and answered it.

"Hello."

_"Hey," Yamato called on the other end, "get up. We're coming to get you."_

"What? Why?"

_"Because Honjo needs our help," he said, "he borrowed some money from a guy, and we think he's going to return it. We can't let him go alone."_

"Well, I have plans to go to breakfast with Akio."

_He sighed, "really! You're going to abandon your friend for some guy."_

I sat up more awake than I was, "I'm not abandoning anyone."

_"Sure. You know what, do what you want," he hung up._

I hung up and growled. After getting dressed, I met Akio at his host club.

"Hey," he greeted, "ready to go."

I sighed, "yeah."

"Okay, what's wrong?"

"Well, instead of helping my friends, I chose to come here, and Yamato got really mad."

He smiled slightly, "don't worry. I'm sure their going to be taken care of."

I turned to him, "what do you mean?"

"Well remember that friend I called," I nodded, "he said he would take very good care of your friends."

I felt my anger build inside me, "What did you do?"

He put his hand on my shoulder, "I made sure that they would get what's coming to them."

I shoved his shoulder off and grabbed him by the collar, "where are they?"

After he gave me directions to his friends hideout, I dropped him. He fell to the ground. As I started to walk away, he called after me.

"Heza. Come on baby, they just a bunch of delinquents especially that Yamato guy."

I stopped and turned to him, "those delinquents are my best friends, and Yamato is ten times the man you will ever be. Oh and one more thing, I'm not your baby."

I left him and quickly made my way to his friend's hideout. I finally got there and heard shouting.

"You borrowed 500,000 yen."

I entered the warehouse to see Honjo run up to some guy behind a desk. A bunch of guys surrounded my friends when they tried to leave.

"I can't let you do that," the guy said standing up, "I made a deal with man, who wants a certain group of delinquents to disappear."

"Who would that be," I called getting their attention.

The guys looked at me in shock as the guy smirked.

"Well well well, what do we have here," he stepped towards me.

Yamato pushed him back, "get away from her."

That started a chain reaction. The next thing I knew the guys were pinned down, and a guy held my arms behind my back. The leader dragged Honjo away from the others and began to beat him up.

"Honjo! Honjo!"

I started to cry, "stop it!"

The leader picked up a pipe as his thugs held Honjo up. He was about to hit him with the pipe when a voice stopped him.

"Don't touch him again!"

We looked at the entrance to see Yankumi.

"A high schooler isn't really a fair opponent for you, is it," she lectured.

The thugs stepped forward, "who the hell are you?"

She got in her serious mode, "me? I'm those kid's home room teacher."

"A teacher," they laughed.

"I'd like you to return my students," she said slowly walking towards them.

"Unfortunately, this is my work," the leader said.

Yankumi tilted her head, "work?"

He pointed his pipe at Honjo, "I lent him money, but he tried to cancel it by returning only 50,000 yen."

"Honjo. You..."

"I lent him 500,000 yen."

"That's wrong," Honjo cried out, "I only borrowed 50,000 yen!"

"And it was all a trap to beat the guys up," I shouted before the guy holding me covered my mouth.

Yankumi glared at the leader, "it's dirty to prey on people in trouble to make money just so you can beat up him and his friends, isn't it?"

"What was that," the leader growled.

"You can't call what you do work," she stated.

"Shut up!"

The leader nodded his head and his thugs walked up to Yankumi. She started to dodge the thugs punches with ease.

"It's because of guys like you that an increasing number of kids don't understand the value of money and real labor," she yelled.

"Get her."

As the thugs tried to hit Yankumi, I broke free and ran to help Honjo.

"Are you alright?"

When I looked up, the leader was the only one left.

"You still want to continue," Yankumi asked dangerously, "if it's to protect my precious students...I won't hold back."

"Don't take me lightly," the leader yelled before attacking Yankumi.

Yankumi stopped his attack then knocked him out. We followed Yankumi to the nearby park. Yamato was the only one who didn't talk to me the whole time. We sat down in the park.

"You guys...," Yankumi smiled, "all you do is reckless stuff."

"But...," Honjo sniffed, "if I didn't return that money, I wouldn't be able to face my dad."

"I see."

Yankumi's phone went off. As she answered the call, I turned to the guys.

"I'm really sorry," I stood up and bowed to them, "really sorry."

"Stop apologizing," Ren mumbled.

I stood up straight, "but if it wasn't for me..."

"We don't blame you," Yamato said leaving no room for argument.

I sighed still feeling bad when Yankumi turned to us.

"Honjo. Your dad's escaped from the hospital."

"Huh," Honjo stood up and thought for a minute, "the shop!"

He took off. We ran after him. He led us to his father's shop. We saw his dad working. Honjo went up to him.

Dad! What are you doing?"

His dad looked up, "oh, Kengo. Ah sensei."

"Please don't do this, sneaking out of the hospital..."

Honjo's dad interrupted Yankumi's plead, "but I have to since I can't leave the hospital yet."

"Of course not! You aren't better yet," Honjo yelled.

"Give it a rest," he told Honjo, "I feel bad for the customers, keeping the shop closed for so long. Business isn't something for you. It's something for customers. I've worked believing that."

I stood there watching Mr. Honjo work as the rest of the class ran up to us.

"We heard that Honjo's dad disappeared. We were worried."

"Everyone, take a good look at Honjo's dad," Yankumi said, "this is what work is. It's something you do with painstaking effort and responsibility. It's because of this that money has value."

Honjo wiped his tears away then went up to his dad. He told his dad that he used some of his money. He apologized saying he would work to repay it.

"Come on. Don't just stand there. Help out," his dad pointed to some buckets, "wash those buckets. Wash them well."

As Honjo went over to the buckets, Yamato, Ren and I ran up to Honjo's dad.

"We'll help too," I smiled, "this needs to be washed, right?"

"Oh, thanks. Kengo, bring those molds."

We washed the buckets as Honjo begged his dad to go back to the hospital when the tofu is made. His dad gave in which made me smile bigger.

Yankumi turned to the rest of the class, "alright guys, shall we do this?"

"Oh!"

For the rest of the day, we helped Honjo's dad sell all of his tofu. At one point the head teacher showed up and ran Yankumi off. It was hilarious. When every tofu was sold, Honjo's dad went back to the hospital. Yamato said he would walk me home. When we got to my building, I turned to him.

"I'm really sorry for everything, and you were right. He was trying to change me, and I'm going to do what you said."

"And what's that?"

"I'm going to find someone who will like me for me," I smiled, "well good-night, Yamato."

"Good-night."


	8. Episode Six

Episode 6

It's been a couple of days since the night Yamato walked me home, and ever since, I started to feel weird. Like if what Kaoruko said, about me liking Yamato, was true. My heart would start beating faster when I'm around him, and my face burns up went he looks at me. Maybe I do like him...no, there is no maybe. I do 100% like Ogata, Yamato. Now if only I had the courage to tell him.

"Big announcement," Kamiya called from the front of the class pulling me out of my thoughts, "I've got a hook-up party," I rolled my eyes as the class cheered, "don't be shocked when hear this. This time there's 4 groups. Everyone here right now will be able to take part!"

I felt my heart drop a little as the cheering grew louder. What if Yamato went and he fell for one of those preppy girls?

"You did it, Kamiya," Ren cheered as he stood on his desk.

"Nice going," Ichi cheered in my ear, "hook-up party ring leader."

Honjo nodded in agreement, "the girls! Who are the girl?!"

"First up, Momo girls," he placed a paper with a drawing of the girls on it on the board, "then Elize Girls school, Seijun Girls High, finally, Grace Music school."

The guys ran to the front to pick their groups.

"Hey, hey, hey! Yamato," Honjo called, "which one will you join?"

"Um...I'll pass," he said sitting away from them.

Even though I was just sitting in my desk looking bored, on the inside I was jumping up and down like a little school girl, but that went away once Ren jumped in front of him.

"I see! Well now, are you afraid of getting embarrassed if you're less popular than me," he asked messing with Yamato's hair.

I wanted to beat Ren's ass. Preying on Yamato's ego.

"What! I'm less popular? That's impossible," Yamato growled.

Ren smiled, "then...let's have a battle at the party!"

"Sure, why not," my heart completely dropped, "I'll show you."

"I'm getting fired up," Honjo yelled.

"Alright! Let's put more spirit into it," Yamato cheered.

"Oh!"

"Let's get some girlfriends," Ren yelled making me want to crawl in a hole and die.

"Oh!"

"Kura, Kura," Ichi called, "what about you?"

I turned to see Kura was still in his desk, which was very strange. Kura, usually, would be the first one to be in a group.

"What," Kura waved his hand, "ah, I'll pass."

This shock everyone, even me. Kura never missed a chance to go to a hook-up party. The guys ran to him and circled his seat.

"Hey! What's wrong, Kura," Kamiya yelled.

Ren put his hand on Kura's forehead, "do you have a fever or something?"

Kura removed his hand, "I'm not sick"

"Ohayou," Yankumi called entering the classroom.

The guys went silent and cautiously turned to her.

"What's everyone all worked up for," she asked.

"It's nothing," Yamato answered for us.

"You don't have to hide it," she laughed.

"It's pointless to tell you," Kamiya stated, "since it's about love."

That only made her more interested.

"It wouldn't be 'pointless.' Don't hesitate to ask me anything about love. C'mon, don't hold back."

Ichi raised his hand, "by the way..."

"Yes, what is it, Ichimura-kun?"

"Yankumi, do you have a man?"

Yankumi went silent. I silently laughed to myself already knowing the answer. There was no way she had a man.

She gave a small chuckle, "we're having a pop quiz."

We groaned.

"Okay, please take your seats!"

As everyone took their seats, I watched Kura. He was smiling really goofy.

"Something's up with Kura," Yamato whispered to me and Ren.

After school we got the gang together and followed Kura. It was getting really weird. At one point, he started skipping. We hid in some boxes that were laying on the side of the road. He looked at his cellphone then started running. We rose from our hiding place after he pasted. We looked like a cosplay fail photo.

"Where's he going," Yamato asked.

"Dunno..."

"Let's go after him."

We started to move with our boxes, but Kamiya fell over. Kura stopped and turned to us, but luckly, we hid before he could see us. He ran off, and we followed. He lead us to the hospital. We hid behind a cardboard person as he went up to a girl. We peaked around and smiled.

"I see," Yamato laughed, "so it was this."

"That Kura didn't even say a word to me," Ichi said shaking Yamato in joy.

"That's why he hasn't been around with us lately," Honjo stated.

"Damn. She cute too," Ren whined.

"But what are they talking about," Kamiya wondered.

Like idiots, the guys started walking forward to hear but tripped over each others feet and fell, leaving me standing.

Kura pointed at us in shock, "hey! What are you guys doing?!"

We did our secret wave, "hello."

After the guys got up, we were introduced to Kura's girlfriend. Her name was Saki, and she was admitted in the hospital for 2 weeks.

"What are you sick with," Honjo asked like an idiot.

We all hit him on the head, "baka! How can you ask that?!"

"It's nothing serious," Saki-chan smiled.

"How did you meet him," Yamato asked.

We got closer waiting for the answer. Saki-chan turned to Kura. He smiled.

"Well, actually it was when I had a cold last week," he explained, "at that moment, an angel swooped down right in front of me."

"A fateful encounter," I asked laughing.

"It's not like you at all," Ren pointed out.

"Shut up!"

As the guys goofed around, Saki-chan turned to me.

"Are one of these guys your boyfriend?"

I looked at Yamato, "not exactly."

She followed my line of sight, "I see," she turned to the guys, "I see you're good friends."

Kura laughed, "good friends? It's more like dorks just messing around."

"Must be nice..," Saki-chan looked down sadly, "I want to go out, too."

"Is that so? I can take you out any time," Kura said.

"Really," Kura nodded, "ah! I have to head back because my dad's coming."

Kura looked at the time, "oh. That's right. See you tomorrow. Bye bye."

She waved and left.

"Kawaii..."

"She's definitely a cutie, isn't she?"

The guys nodded. Then we jumped back from the person who popped up beside us.

"Don't just pop up like that," Yamato told Yankumi.

She smiled at Kura, "you rascal! Well done Kuraki! Was that your girlfriend?"

"No, it wasn't."

She nudged him, "yeah, right."

She laughed until a doctor called her name. Suddenly she began to fumble over herself and that only meant one thing. This guy was Yankumi's crush. We watched as she embarrassed herself. It was hilarious. When he told her that he liked her in her jersey, her face was priceless. I bet she went home that night and tried on every jersey she had in her closet.

* * *

The next day was the night of the hook-up party. Kamiya asked me to help them get the girls. I agreed, but under one condition. They had wear exactly what I tell them to wear. Tonight was going to be fun. The time for the hook-up party came quickly. My guys were grouped up with the Momo girls.

"Alright boys, here you go," I gave them their clothes.

They looked at them in disgust. I laughed.

"You're kidding, right," Honjo asked.

I shook my head, "no, now go get dressed so I can fix your hair."

They left. When the came back, I want to laugh my ass off, except when Yamato came out. He looked so cute! Why did my plan have to fail?! I fixed their hair, and gave Ren and Yamato fake glasses. I hoped it would make him look nerdy and ugly, but he looked cuter.

"Are you alright, Sai-chan," Kamiya asked, "you look like you want to cry."

"I'm fine," I took a deep breath, "alright, in you go."

Not able to watch, I stepped out for some fresh air. On the way, I past a couple of drunk guys from another school. They were probably going to their own hook-up party, so I ignored them. Once I was outside, I sat down on a bench in front of the building. I wasn't sitting for long when my phone started buzzing. I took out my phone to see it was a call from Yankumi.

"Moshi moshi."

_"Saitou-chan, I got a call from the hospital. Kuraki took Saki-chan out and her chest started hurting."_

"Is she alright?"

_"I don't know. I'll meet you at the hospital."_

"Okay, ja ne."

I ran back in the building. I bumped into the drunk guys only they didn't look drunk. They looked scared. I ignored them again and kept running. The guys were standing outside their room looking sad.

"Guys, we need to get to the hospital," I panted.

This alerted the guys.

"What's wrong," they asked at the same time.

"Kura took Saki-chan out, and she got hurt. Come on."

After the guys quickly changed back into their normal clothes, we ran to the hospital. Yankumi was waiting for us. She lead us to Saki's room, where Kura and the doctor from yesterday, Natsume, were standing outside in the hall. We ran to them.

"Kura!"

"What do you thing you're doing," Yankumi asked Kura, "taking a sick person out like that?!"

"It's okay," Natsume reassured her, "she's just fatigued since she hasn't been out in a while. I think that's why she was experiencing painful heart palpitations and breathing."

"Um...About Saki-chan's condition...," Kura hesitated.

"She has heart disease," Natsume said sadly.

I could tell everyone's heart dropped hearing that, especially Kura's. The door opened and a couple walked out. I assumed it was Saki-chan's parents. Yankumi walked up to them.

"Excuse me," they looked at her, "I'm Kuraki's home room teacher, Yamaguchi. I'm truly sorry that this happened."

Kura stepped forward, "I'm sorry. I...I..."

Saki's father grabbed Kura and shoved him into the wall, "you! What are you trying to do? Do you know what you've done?"

Natsume pulled the man off Kura, "Fujimura-san."

Kura looked like he wanted to cry right then and there. Fujimura called the school. Yankumi told us to go home while she went to the school with Kura and Fujimura, but we went anyway. We listened to the adults through the office door.

"I truly apologize for this," Sawatari said.

"What on earth are you teaching here at this school," Fujimura demanded, "it's too late after something happens! I hear that this school has a bunch of uncontrollable students. Certainly...You can just tell that they're that way. I won't get the police involved since my daughter said not to. However, I have faith that your school will properly punish him."

"Yes, of course," Sawatari said.

Hearing enough, we barged in the office.

"Hey, hey, hey! What are you saying," Ren demanded.

"Kura isn't the bad one here," Ichi said.

"She was the one that called Kura out," I explained.

"Stop," Yankumi pleaded.

Honjo shook his head, "we can't be quiet about this!"

"How can we accept this," Kamiya added.

"It's fine, guys," Kura said trying to calm us down.

Fujimura turned to us, "I'm amazed that your friends are the same way."

"As a school, we'll properly punish him concerning this incident," Sawatari bowed.

"Please do so."

Yamato stepped forward, "but Kura did it for her!"

"For my daughter? If you care for my daughter...," Fujimura turned to Kura, "don't ever see her again."

Kura looked up at him sadly. Fujimura grabbed his stuff, walked by us and left. We left a few minutes later. I went on home. I didn't get a lot of sleep that night. All I could see when I closed my eyes was Kura's sad face when he was told to never see Saki-chan again. I kept thinking about if I was told never to see Yamato again, how I would feel and how Kura must be feeling right now.

* * *

It was a sad day for us. Kura didn't come to school. We just looked at his empty desk. I wanted to go out and find him, but Yankumi said that we need to give him some time. She said she would go after school and talk to him. It was hard, but we waited for the bell to ring. We went to our usual place and waited. After a few hours, Kura walked through the door. We greeted him, but he didn't say anything. He sadly walked to the bar and sat down. We went over to him.

"Hey, Kura. We've been worried," Ichi patted his back.

Honjo playfully shaked him, "because you haven't been at school."

"Where have you been," Ren nudged him.

Kura still didn't say anything. I sighed when his phone started ringing. He looked at the screen then hesitantly answered it.

"I told you to not call me anymore!"

This got our attention. He hung up.

"Hey, Kura. What's wrong," Kamiya asked.

"Saki-chan...," he started, "snuck out of the hospital again."

"What?"

"She said she wants to apologize to me so she's waiting at the park."

With that said, Kura got up and ran out.

"Kura!"

"This is bad. What should we do," Honjo turned to our two leaders.

"Contact Yamaguchi," Yamato said.

We all ran out to find Kura as Yamato called Yankumi. We ran to the park. I looked around, but Kura and Saki-chan wasn't anywhere. We stopped in front of Yankumi.

"Where's Kuraki?"

We panted and shrugged out shoulders.

"Look," Yamato called picking something off the ground, "this is Kura's."

"Let's find him," Yankumi turned to me, "Saitou, go to the hospital and get Saki-chan's father. We'll call you when we find them."

I nodded and turned to Yamato, "be careful."

He nodded as the guys whooed.

"Shut up," he barked.

I ran to the hospital as they ran the other way. I found Fujimura.

"You need to come with me," I panted.

"You're one of those kids from yesterday," he growled.

"We don't have time for this. Saki-chan is in danger. You need to come with me."

He hesitated a little, but then nodded. After a quick call from Ren, I lead Fujimura to an old warehouse on the other side of town. We ran to see Yankumi in her serious mode standing over a couple of thugs. I ran over to the guys as Fujimura stood there and watched. I noticed Kura's protective position in front of Saki-chan and hoped her father was seeing it too.

The leader of the thugs glared at Yankumi, "damn you..."

She glared back, "you guys probably have no idea what's going through his mind while fighting, huh? I will not allow you to crush his desire to protect someone important to him."

When she said that, I would've swore I felt a pair of eyes on me, but I shook it off and watched Yankumi.

"I won't go easy on you," she yelled.

"Shut up," the leader attacked but in vain.

The thugs got up and ran for their lives. I couldn't blame them. We ran over to Kura.

"Kura! Kura!"

Kura ignored us and turned to Saki-chan, "are you alright?"

She nodded, "I'm sorry. I...just desperately wanted to apologize to you."

"Are you stupid," he asked, "you should be worrying about yourself not me," Kura looked up at us, "I'm really uncool, huh."

Yankumi stepped forward, "no, you're not. You fought with those guys by yourself to protect your girlfriend. That was a very cool thing to do."

Kura looked at Saki-chan. I smiled at the couple, but it dropped when Fujimura stepped forward.

"Saki..."

"Father! Father, Kuraki-kun wasn't bad," Saki-chan said defending Kura, "everyday has been fun since I met Kuraki-kun. I thought it's nice to have a friend. I've started thinking that I want to get well soon and go back to school again."

Yankumi decided then to step forward, "he's still immature, and he makes mistakes. But he really knows how to love people. That's what I think. Please, I beg you, please don't judge only from appearance and words. Please see Kuraki as a person," she bowed, "please, I beg you."

Fujimura walked up to Kura, "so, you protected Saki risking yourself," he handed Kura his handkerchief, "thank you."

Kura slowly took it and blowed a little. Saki smiled and hugs her father. We all smiled.

* * *

The next day class 3-D stood outside the bus station. We were saying good-bye to Saki-chan.

"How come she's suddenly going to Fukuoka," Kamiya wondered.

"Her father's being transferred," Ichi replied.

"She's continuing treatment at another hospital," Ren added.

Honjo sighed, "just when Kura was spared a punishment."

Saki-chan's parents got on the bus, but she stayed. Yankumi pushed Kura towards her. He slowly walked up to Saki-chan.

"I might be attending school again around summer," Saki-chan said trying to lighten the mood.

"Really?"

"Yeah," she smiled, "will you take me out again when I'm all better?"

Kura nodded with a smile, "sure, anywhere you want."

"See ya."

As Saki-chan got on the bus, Kura called out to her, "do your best!"

The bus took off. Kura yelled bye after it. We ran up to him.

"Don't cry Kura," I nudged him.

He sniffed, "I'm not crying."

"Damn! That was so sweet," Honjo yelled.

"Now I want a girlfriend too," Ichi yelled shaking Ren.

"Crap," Ren barked, "why can't I get a girlfriend!"

Everyone laughed. We started talking among ourselves when Kamiya pointed to something behind us. We looked to see Yankumi and Natsume smiling at each other. We whooed and got their attention.

"Hey, don't show off," Yamato laughed.

Ren held his fingers up like a picture frame, "it's finally Spring for Yankumi?"

"You guys," she ran at us, "how can you say that to your teacher?!"

We ran away laughing with her right on our tail. I was almost out of breath when I was pulled behind one of the pillars of the bus station. I turned to see Yamato. I tried to keep my heart-beat down.

"Na...," I cleared my throat, "nani?"

"You know watching Kura protect Saki-chan today made me want to protect my important person too," he said trying to stay cool.

I looked down, "so you met someone at the hook-up party?"

"No," I looked at him, "I technically met her on the roof of our school."

My eyes widened, "you mean...," I pointed to myself.

He smiled and nodded, "Saitou, Heza, will you be my girlfriend?"

I couldn't say anything so I slowly nodded. He smiled bigger and hugged me. I wanted to stay like that forever, but of course, class 3-D had to ruin the moment.

"Whoo!"

We broke apart.

"Who's showing off now," Ren laughed.

Yamato laughed, "shut up."

That night he walked me home, but it wasn't like before. This time he held my hand and kiss me on the cheek when he said good-night.


End file.
